Vertical split in Bihar JD(U) likely

By Our Special Correspondent

PATNA, MAY 2. A split in the Janta Dal(U) is imminent with the Union Communications Minister and party's Parliamentary Board Chairman. Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan, treating a rebel candidate as the official one in the May 4 biennial elections to the Bihar Legislative Council.

The announcement in Delhi has come as a surprise to most in the JD(U) and to other constituents of the NDA as it underscored a direct conflict with the Civil Aviation Minister and JD(U) president, Mr. Sharad Yadav, who has allotted the ticket to one of his close associates, Mr. Vijay Kumar Verma.

On the other hand, Mr. Paswan has livened up the biennial elections with his decision with just a couple of days ahead of the elections. He is treating the rebel JD(U) candidate, Mr. Vijay Shani, nephew of party MP, Capt. Jai Narain Nishad, as the official one.

Mr. Paswan and Mr. Yadav have been at loggerheads and the latter had his way in nominating his election agent as the party nominee much to the former's chagrin. The differences between the coupled with groupism has rendered the State unit rudderless with no State unit chief who quit after the party's debacle in the Assembly election, and revolt by a section against him.Reaction within the party also spells doom for it. While some maintained that Mr. Paswan was well within his right in making the announcement their objection was that it had come just a day head of the elections, that too after the party president had allocated the symbol.

Mr. Paswan's action is being seen as a calculated move and the party leaders are preparing themselves for a split, with some predicting a vertical split. The JDLP is meeting tomorrow which will be crucial.

The JD(U) Legislature Party leader, Mr. Ganesh Yadav, described Mr. Paswan's action as arbitrary without the sanction of the Parliamentary Board. He maintained that Mr. Verma was the party's official nominee and did not rule out a split in the given circumstances.

The JD(U) general secretary, Mr. Laxmi Sahu, charged that the party leaders were treating the party like their fiefdoms and the workers as their paid workers usurping the democratic process altogether.

The JD(U) has 20 MLAs with an independent being its associate member and should it split it may, a vertical one. Mr. Sahrad Yadav could bank on the support of at least nine of the Yadav MLAs.

A division in the JD(U) will liven up the biennial elections in which there are three independent candidates including two rebels. Besides the JD(U) rebel, the other one is from the RJD. Things might still have gone smoothly but for Mr. Paswan's move.

The two JD(U) candidates will have to manage extra votes for their victory. The fate of the two candidates would be decided by the stand to be taken by the other constituents of the NDA - that is the Samata Party, the BJP and the JMM.

The BJP has sought to distance itself from the problem, with the State unit president, Mr. Nand Kishore Yadav, saying that it was the internal problem of the JD(U) and that the BJP itself required additional votes to ensure the victory of its three candidates. He however added that the party would be treating the JD(U) candidate with the symbol as the official one.

The Samata Party has spare votes while the JMM with 12 MLAs has not fielded any candidate reciprocating the support it had received in the recently biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha. The party's stand towards the problem and that of the Samata Party would give a direction to the new alignment of political forces within and outside the NDA.

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Section  : Regional
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