Janata Dal leaders yesterday threatened that they were willing to even dump Gujral to uphold the Janata Dals long standing principle of no compromise on corruption. They were bitter about Prime Minister I K Gujrals refusal to sack the three Cabinet ministers owing allegiance to the break-away Rashtriya Janata Dal of Laloo Prasad Yadav.
Gujral is a member of the Janata Dal and therefore under the organisational control of party president Sharad Yadav. Yadav yesterday maintained silence on the fate of the three ministers, saying senior leaders of the Dal were meeting in the evening to finalise its stand on the issue.
Senior Dal leaders expected to attend include Sharad Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan, S Jaipal Reddy, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, Union ministers C M Ibrahim, R L Jalappa and S R Bommai among others. Prime Minister I K Gujral was unlikely to attend the meeting. The Prime Minister has also kept away from anti-Laloo Prasad MLAs from the Bihar Janata Dal, who demand the dismissal of the three Laloo loyalists in the central cabinet.
Sharad Yadav has so far refrained from personally demanding the dismissal of the RJD ministers, though Dal activists close to him claim that the party president was extremely upset at the Prime Ministers interview to a private TV channel in which he refused to sack the three ministers.
Sharad Yadavs supporters yesterday bitterly criticised Gujral for his statement that there was no harm in admitting RJD in the United Front as long as the new party showed its commitment to secularism. They said they were willing to make the supreme sacrifice - of the government - to uphold the Dal tradition of fighting against corruption.
Will Gujral admit a splinter group of CPI-M, or TDP in case there is a split in these parties?, a Sharad supporter asked. He said the party leaders had now left it to the Left to talk to various Front constituents to evolve a consensus on sacking the three RJD ministers and refusing entry for the party into the UF. Sharad Yadav met CPI-M general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet yesterday morning. His party colleague Ram Vilas Paswan is talking to senior leaders of various Front partners. The two leaders are banking on the Left parties for voicing demands that so far they themselves have refrained from.
Senior UF leaders held informal consultations throughout yesterday over the split in Dal and its fallout on the Front even though they had postponed a meeting of the steering Committee., scheduled for yesterday.
United Front Convenor N Chandrababu Naidu met Prime Minister I K Gujral at his 7, Race Course residence in the evening and headed straight to the residence of CPI-M general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet from there. He had a long meeting with Surjeet. Before that, he had a telephonic conversation with CPI general secretary A B Bardhan.
Surjeet, who returned from London early yesterday, had an extremely busy day. Janata Dal president Sharad Yadav, CPI general secretary A B Bardhan and Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav met him at his residence in the morning.
Janata Dal leader Ram Vilas Paswan also held separate talks with various leaders of the Front constituent parties.
