Mamata back in NDA, Fernandes to talk to Farooq

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, AUG. 27. The Trinamool Congress is back in the National Democratic Alliance, the PMK's re-entry has been formalised, and once again the services of the NDA convener, Mr. George Fernandes, are to be used to smoothen the ruffled feathers of a partner - this time the National Conference, whose leader, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, on Sunday threatened to walk out of the ruling coalition. In fact, it was indicated that Mr. Fernandes might meet Dr. Abdullah here tomorrow to remove the ``misunderstanding.''

Mr. Fernandes later said that the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee's remarks on holding free and fair elections in Jammu and Kashmir and the subsequent remarks of the Home Minister, Mr. L.K. Advani, had been misrepresented and led to some ``differences'' which would be sorted out internally. Although Dr. Abdullah did not attend today's meeting, his son and Minister, Mr. Omar Abdullah, represented the party.

The 90-minute meeting at the Prime Minister's residence welcomed Ms. Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress back into the ruling coalition, but not before some loud protests by some members who suggested that she be asked to apologise publicly for having ``betrayed'' the NDA so unceremoniously on the eve of the Assembly elections in West Bengal. But, clearly the Prime Minister, who was in the chair, had already made up his mind to say ``yes'' to Ms. Banerjee - she and her party MPs had already been invited by him to dinner tomorrow along with all the NDA MPs. And Mr. Fernandes, whose head Ms. Banerjee had demanded after the Tehelka scandal broke out, has been going out of his way to appease Ms. Banerjee. The objections of Mr. Sharad Yadav (Janata Dal-United), Ms. Maneka Gandhi (independent) and even Mr. Sikander Bakht (BJP) were thus easily overcome. Later, Ms. Banerjee said that she had all along been in favour of strengthening the NDA and particularly the hands of the Prime Minister.

At one point, the BJP president, Mr. Jana Krishnamurthi, referred to the need for ``norms'' and a code of conduct for NDA members, which the Prime Minister said should be formulated in the next few days, a suggestion to which Mr. Fernandes agreed. Mr. Fernandes later admitted that he had ``forgotten'' to invite the DMK leader, Mr. Murasoli Maran, to the one meeting of the sub- committee. But the draft of the code would be ready soon and would be circulated to members, he said.

The meeting also formalised the ``re-entry'' of the PMK into the NDA fold, although even without this formal approval the PMK had participated in the last NDA meeting.

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