BJP panel to meet again today

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JAN. 19. None of the four would-be National Democratic Alliance partners for the Bihar Assembly elections has been able to get started with the process of selecting candidates as an agreement on seat-sharing continues to elude them.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's Central Election Committee which met for the second day today will meet again tomorrow morning, and the JD(U) parliamentary board which met yesterday was also bogged down with working out formulas for sharing seats.

All that the hectic discussions over the last few days have been able to produce is an ``informal'' understanding that parties with ``sitting'' MLAs should be given those seats. This would take care of only about 75 seats in the 324-member Assembly.

Adding to the woes today was a ``notice'' given by the Election Commission to the Samata Party and the Lok Shakti asking them to explain the contradictions between the current stand and ``affidavits'' submitted by their leaders to the Commission last month declaring their intention to merge with the JD(U). This could certainly add to the complications even as the election clock continues to tick away and nominations for the first phase of polls covering 108 seats close on January 24.

Last night, the BJP president, Mr. Kushabhau Thakre, met the JD(U) leaders, Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan and Mr. Sharad Yadav. for over two hours. From the BJP, Mr. Kailashpati Mishra and Mr. K. N. Govindacharya were present. This morning, Mr. Govindacharya met the Samata Party's Mr. George Fernandes and Mr. Digvijay Singh. Discussions are expected to take place tonight and early tomorrow morning before the BJP's Central Election Committee meets at 10.30 a.m. Today's CEC meeting was attended by the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister, and was presided by Mr. Jana Krishnamurthy in the absence of Mr. Thakre, who has again been hospitalised.

In Orissa after a meeting of the Biju Janata Dal's steering committee yesterday, the party is said to have decided to contest 100 seats of a total of 147 as opposed to an earlier claim of 122. But even this offer is nowhere near satisfying the BJP which wants a 50 per cent share.

In Haryana, the Indian National Lok Dal continued to talk tough but the BJP said its general secretary, Mr. Narendra Modi, is talking to the INLD leaders in the hope of making them see reason. The BJP will be happy to contest just 35 of the 90 Assembly seats, but it seems the INLD is not in a mood to offer more than 20 to 25 seats. A senior party leader said Mr. Om Prakash Chautala wanted to make the BJP redundant in Haryana by getting a majority on his own.

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