Samata rebels relent, to attend Mysore meet

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JAN. 8. Rebel Samata MPs, led by Mr. Raghunath Jha, have decided to call off their `boycott' and attend the two-day National Council, which got under way in Mysore today, at the instance of the senior party leader and Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, who ``persuaded'' them to join the session.

These MPs had announced on Sunday their decision to stay away. During the stand-off between the Agriculture Minister, Mr. Nitish Kumar, who favoured taking the Janata Dal (United) on board the Samata, and the six MPs who opposed the move, both factions left it to Mr. Fernandes to resolve the issue.

The six MPs were now satisfied with the assurance that their views would be ``respected'' and also because Mr. Fernandes ruled out any move for merger with any party. According to Mr. Jha, Mr. Fernandes said the differences over the merger and other issues could be sorted out at the Mysore meeting.

The crisis in the party erupted on January 3. Two days later the six MPs held a parallel party convention at Patna to elect Mr. Jha State unit chief, even as Mr. Kumar resigned from the Union Cabinet on being ``targeted by this section of the Parliamentary party''. However, his resignation was rejected by the Prime Minister.

While both the JD(U) and the Samata Party maintained there was no proposal officially for a merger, Mr. Kumar favoured it in the larger context of ``consolidation'' of forces opposed to Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav, the supremo of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). In fact, a faction of the JD(U)/Samata was hoping that the current dissidence in the RJD would eventually result in replacement of the Rabri Devi Government and the possibility of another political realignment in Bihar.

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