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Fear of RJD keeps NDA partners together

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The spectre of Laloo Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal benefitting from the wrangling among the three major partners in the National Democratic Alliance in Bihar has forced them to sink their differences.

That is why the Bharatiya Janata Party, Samata Party and Janata Dal (United) agreed late on Friday to regroup. BJP sources told rediff.com that the party's leader in Patna, Nand Kishore Yadav, had sent a message to the central leadership that the three allies had agreed to sink their differences and contest the election jointly. "Nand Kishore Yadav indicated that the decks are being cleared for the allies to launch a combined fight and dislodge the RJD government in the state," BJP spokesman M Venkaiah Naidu, a member of the Rajya Sabha, said.

Naidu said senior BJP politician and Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha had brokered the understanding among the three parties with Bihar People's Party politician Lovely Anand also present. Others present at the meeting included Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly Sushil Kumar Modi of the BJP, senior BJP politician Kailashpati Mishra, Nitish Kumar of the Samata Party, and Ram Vilas Paswan of the JD-U.

Yashwant Sinha told the allies that if they contested against one another in the impending poll, Laloo's RJD would retain power. He also told them that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was getting impatient with the squabbles among the NDA constituents on sharing the 425 seats in Bihar and they should not be surprised if the BJP decides to go it alone, Naidu underscored.

BJP sources indicated that Prime Minister Vajpayee adopted a tough stance after getting reports from the home ministry that some Samata Party politicians, including Union Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar, had also opposed the government's proposal to set up a commission to review the Constitution.

Consequently, the meeting of the NDA allies, which Yashwant Sinha attended on Friday, decided that none of them stood to gain by being disunited.

Following the BJP leadership's green signal, the party began taking other initiatives to ensure that the three allies sharpen their strategy. Sources said that by late Saturday night, only one NDA candidate's name would remain to be announced to take on their chief rival, Laloo Prasad Yadav, in Danapur.

It is understood that the NDA constituents were forced back together also because the Congress is gearing up in a big way for the election. The party has already released the names of state unit chief Sadanand Singh and a few former ministers as candidates. Even as late as Friday, Singh is understood to have told the high command that the party's prospects are bright because the RJD is on the downswing while the NDA allies are fighting among themselves.

The Bihar Congress has also urged party president Sonia Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Vadra to visit the state for canvassing. The high command had so far kept mum on the question of Vadra's visit.

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