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Janata Dal settles internal squabbles

J H Patel is to continue as Karnataka chief minister but the ruling Janata Dal state unit will have a new president, Siddaramiah, and the state cabinet will be reconstituted shortly in consultation with senior state leaders, including former prime minister H D Deve Gowda.

The compromise formula aimed to end nearly six months of dissident activity in the state unit was hammered out at a three-hour meeting of the Dal's political affairs committee held here today.

Announcing the decision at a news conference immediately after the PAC meeting party president Sharad Yadav said all the decisions were taken unanimously with a view to strengthening the party to face the assembly elections this November.

Sharad Yadav said Siddaramiah will also continue to hold the post of deputy chief minister despite being the leader of the state unit. Indications are that the incumbent, B L Shankar, will be inducted into the council of ministers.

Siddaramiah, who belongs to the backward Kurba community, did not take sides in the dissident activity in the state unit. At one stage Deve Gowda, who was spearheading the dissident activity, projected Siddarmiah as a replacement for Patel. But the change could not be effected since Patel enjoys the support of a majority of the Dal's MLAs. The Kurba community constitutes around seven per cent of the state's electorate.

Yadav said the chief minister would reconstitute his cabinet in consultation with Deve Gowda, S R Bommai and Siddaramiah. He declined to announce any time frame for the completion of the exercise.

The PAC meeting, presided over by Sharad Yadav, was attended, among others, by Deve Gowda, J H Patel, S R Bommai, Madhu Dandavate, Surendra Mohan, I K Gujral, Siddaramiah, Ram Vilas Paswan, S Jaipal Reddy, Mrinal Gore, Srikant Jena and Bapu Kaldate.

The dissident activity in the state unit reached a peak late last year when around 40 Dal MLAs wrote to Yadav, demanding the sacking of Patel from the chief minister's post. Yadav had then rushed to Bangalore to settle the matter. A meeting of the Dal legislature party in November had authorised Yadav to take an appropriate decision to end the crisis in the state unit.

Patel and around 12 ministers had separate meetings with Yadav last month and apprised him of the situation. Most of the ministers opposed a change in the leadership on the ground that the state government was functioning well. Yadav was therefore forced to strike a balance by retaining Patel as chief minister.

He placated the rival group headed by Gowda by offering Siddaramiah the post of state party president since it is the state unit president who gets to decide who gets party tickets in the forthcoming November elections to the state assembly.

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