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JD vertically divided over tie-up with NDA

A sharp division over the question of the Janata Dal joining hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party-sponsored National Democratic Alliance forced the Dal leadership to postpone the scheduled meeting of the political affairs committee today.

Sources close to party president Sharad Yadav, however, said the meeting had to be postponed since he had not completed the consultations for bringing back the breakaway factions of the party like the Samata, Lok Shakti and Biju Janata Dal. The sources said the PAC will be held after Yadav had completed the exercise.

In the 17-member PAC as many as 11 members led by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda are opposed to the party having any truck with the BJP or its allies. Sources close to him said that if these parties snap their relations with the BJP and leave NDA the Dal would gladly have them back in its fold.

However, six members of the PAC led by another former prime minister I K Gujral, favoured the party joining the NDA on an anti-Congress plank depending on the situation in various states.

The leaders of both the groups had an informal meeting this morning to plan their future course of action since the prospects of a breakthrough appeared remote. The pro-NDA group met at Karnataka Bhavan and those who attended it include Gujral, Ram Vilas Paswan, J H Patel, Kamala Sinha besides Sharad Yadav. After the meeting Patel met Defence Minister George Fernandes.

A separate conclave of leaders opposed to the NDA was held at the residence of Gowda. It was attended among others by Siddaramiah, Srikant Jena, S Jaipal Reddy, C M Ibrahim and S R Bommai.

Yadav is understood to have held consultations with Biju Janata Dal president Navin Patnaik and will be holding discussions with Lok Shakti leader Ramakrishna Hegde later tonight or tomorrow.

On the issue of aligning with NDA, the party president is understood to have said that he had ''no view,'' and he would be holding discussions with parties interested in emerging as a larger forum. There was also a view that the party should go it alone.

Paswan told reporters after the meeting that the party could not align with the Rashriya Janata Dal headed by Laloo Prasad Yadav. He would not react on Yadav holding talks with the JD parivar.

Meanwhile, Wasim Ahmed has been expelled from the primary membership of the Janata Dal for six years for anti-party activities.

Secretary General Bapu Kaldate said that Ahmed, a former Rajya Sabha member, was removed from the general secretaryship on January one this year for not attending the meetings of the central secretariat for one year and not responding to party communications but issuing press statements during this period. He had also attended the June 5 Rashtriya Janata Dal rally at Patna.

UNI

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