During the last fortnight, two emissaries of Congress president P V Narasimha Rao have met Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav in Patna, adding a new dimension to the pulls and pressures within the Janata Dal.
The meetings, intended to be exploratory as of now, could culminate in the two frontline leaders of the two parties coming closer politically, and possibly even in their parties allying against the BJP-Samata alliance in Bihar.
Just as the Congress has become the junior partner in the alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh, it could work out something similar in Bihar with the Janata Dal - though not during the forthcoming byelections to the state assembly.
The development has caused not a little consternation among United Front constituents, highly placed Front sources say. Within the Congress, there are antagonistic responses to Rao's increased closeness to Yadav.
CWC member Sitaram Kesri has for some time been close to Yadav, but former Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra has recently made some obliquely critical comments about Rao, perhaps for fear of being left out in the cold in a Rao-Yadav pact.
With the Bharatiya Janata Party making considerable gains in Bihar in recent years, the Congress has been relegated to a poor third in the state, and some of its leaders would not be averse to forging new alliances in Bihar.
Front sources said political ground realities in his state apart, the immediate provocation for Yadav to adopt a conciliatory posture towards Rao and the Congress is his dwindling say within the Janata Dal. A related factor is Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda's promotion of Ram Vilas Paswan as a counter-weight to Yadav. This was evident during Gowda's recent visit to Bihar.
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Even though Yadav has been camping in the capital for the last two days, Janata Dal sources admit that he had cooled off, and did not involve himself as vigorously as he would normally have in drawing up the list of candidates for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. The sources are not too sure if Yadav would actively plunge into the heat and dust of campaigning in Uttar Pradesh.
CPM leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet forcefully insisted before newsmen yesterday evening that Yadav has been very closely involved with drawing up the list. He has made a tremendous contribution to the exercise. Yadav, who was present at the news conference, wryly looked on.
For the record, he said there were absolutely no differences among anybody within the United Front, and all were one in fighting communalism in the country.