Merger comes a cropper

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

NEW DELHI, JAN. 6. It is a classic case of divorce even before marriage! The much touted merger of the Janata Dal faction led by Mr. Sharad Yadav, Lok Shakti and Samata Party has come a cropper with the Samata declining to join the new outfit.

The Samata Party's decision to retain its political identity and fight the Assembly elections through ``mutual seat adjustments'' is bound to have repercussions on the electoral scene in Bihar where unity among anti-Laloo forces yielded them rich dividends in the Lok Sabha polls in October last year.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal president and former Chief Minister, Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav, has every reason to be pleased with the developments in the Janata Dal (U) camp though the Samata Party insists the door is open for talks with all like- minded parties for seat adjustments.

Indications are that the Janata Dal leaders will continue to persuade the Samata Party to give up its reservations and merge with the new party. The Samata Party has said it would contest 124 of the 320 Assembly seats in Bihar.

The samata Party's refusal to merge with the JD(U) has clearly upset the plans of Mr. Sharad Yadav and others such as Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan who is determined to prevent the RJD from returning to power in Bihar.

Despite the Samata Party's refusal, the JD(U)'s 22 MPs in the Lok Sabha will continue to function as a single group. Of them, 12 are identified with the Samata Party and 10 with Mr. Sharad Yadav's faction.

The tussle over the leadership issue in the JD(U) was the major cause for the Samat Party's volte-face. The party's national executive adopted a resolution saying it could not be party to the merger in the ``absence of a well-structured united party''.

The Samata Party leaders want Mr. Sharad Yadav to step down as party president and Mr. George Fernandes to take his place. This was not acceptable to either Mr. Sharad Yadav or the Lok Shakti leader, Mr. Ramakrishna Hegde.

In anticipation of the merger, Mr. Sharad Yadav organised a grand convention on the lawns of the Constitution Club in the evening and in the absence of Samata Party leaders, the limelight was stolen by the Lok Shakti leaders.

Mr. Sharad Yadav proceeded on the assumption that the Samata Party would have no alternative but to merge with the new outfit given the high stakes in the Bihar Assembly elections. He had certainly not reckoned with the tough stand the latter adopted.

As the Samata party resolution put it, ``the elections to four State assemblies will be announced in the next few days, and in the absence of the unified party, it will be impossible to reconcile the claims of various aspiring candidates. In Bihar, where the Samata Party has been fighting against Mr. Laloo Yadav's jungle raj for over five years, this can create confusion which will not be in the interest of the people of the State who have been waiting for the end of the jungle raj of Laloo Yadav''.

The resolution said that in the absence of a well- structured united party, there could be a repeat of what happened in Karnataka during the last general elections, in which the Lok Shakti and the Janata Dal contested against each other and lost miserably to the Congress(I).

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