A defiant Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav yesterday pushed the Janata Dal to the brink of a split by indicating that he would replace P K Samantray as the returning officer for the election of a new party president at noon today. Yadav accused Samantray of not obeying his instructions to conduct the election in Patna.
Yadav, who is also the president of the Dal, is being opposed in the partys poll by working president Sharad Yadav.
Most senior Dal leaders seemed unperturbed by the Bihar strong mans brinkmanship, indicating that they were willing to let him split the Dal. Some of them hinted that Samata Party leader Nitish Kumar, a mass leader of the Kurmi (backward) community in Bihar, might return to the Dal to replace Laoo Prasad Yadav as the partys top-ranking Bihar leader.
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Kumar left the Dal along with 13 other members of parliament in June 1994 to form the Samata Party. Leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, with which the Samata Party is now aligned, were watching the developments with quiet alarm.
After Samantray announced yesterday that the election would not be held in Patna, Laloo Prasad Yadav told journalists: He is nothing. I am the president. When I point out something, he has to do it immediately. Yadav said he had issued a show cause notice to Samantray asking for a reply by 10 am today, failing which action would be taken against the returning officer.
Sharad Yadav refused to be drawn into the controversy, saying: The party will collectively take a decision on this. However, sources close to him said senior party leaders have already decided to collectively face the situation if Laloo remains defiant. Most state party presidents have also been taken into confidence on the issue.
Senior Dal leaders said they would continue their efforts to convince Laloo to retrace his steps. However, they felt the party would not be poorer without the Bihar Chief Minister, who is embroiled in a Rs 950 crore animal husbandry scam and has announced that he would rule from jail rather than quit.
A senior party leader asked where Yadav would go. He will be on the streets in a couple of weeks, said one, because of imminent action on the fodder scam case. He will have no choice but to return.
Samantrays announcement that the polls would be held in various state capitals came barely a few minutes after his party president repeated at the party headquarters that the polling venue would be Patna. With Laloo Prasads supporters swarming all over the Dal office, Samantray had to use the United Front office to make his announcement amidst tight police security. Dal workers from Haryana supplemented the police guards.
The returning officer said the Janata Dal constitution empowered the national executive to decide the venue for a national conference and also the place of polling. The national executive of the Dal had last met in August, when it decided to hold organisational elections. However, it had not taken any decision on the venue or the time.
The party president is empowered to take the executives decision when the executive is not in session. But in this case, Laloo Prasad Yadav should have exercised his right before May 28 - the day he filed his nomination papers. Once he had filed his papers, he was not entitled to use his presidential powers to his advantage, said Samantray.
Samantray said he had consulted all senior Dal leaders available in Delhi before deciding the polling venue. He could not get in touch with Prime Minister I K Gujral inspite of his request, he added.