Samata Ministers may relent

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 17. Efforts are on to persuade the three Samata Ministers - Mr. Nitish Kumar, Mr. Digvijay Singh and Mr. V. Sreenivasa Prasad - from pressing their resignations from the Union Council of Ministers.

The Ministers, who put in their papers shortly after Mr. George Fernandes resigned as Defence Minister, are sticking to their stand, stating they would not to return to office till the judicial probe ordered by the Government was completed.

There are indications that the Ministers could relent after the party's parliamentary wing meets next week to review the situation in the wake of an appeal by the NDA. Mr. Fernandes also urged the Ministers not to persist with their resignations. Another NDA ally, the Janata Dal (United), asked them to reconsider, stating that there was no need for Mr. Fernandes to resign on the basis of ``fictitious charges''.It also said NDA partners had to fight the ``high-level conspiracy''.

The party spokesman, Mr. Mohan Prakash, said if the Opposition continued to stall Parliament proceedings even after the Prime Minister's announcement of a probe, it would go on to show that they were against the truth coming out.

Meanwhile, the Samata Party spokesman, Dr. Shambu Shrivastva, today asserted that even though the Ministers had resigned, it would not affect the NDA-Samata relations. ``The Samata Party will continue to work for strengthening the NDA and see to it that attempts to destabilise the alliance does not succeed.'' Asked to comment on the outburst of two Samata MPs against officials in the PMO, he said Mr. Prabhunath Singh and Mr. Raghunath Jha had expressed their individual views, which were not shared by the party.

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