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Samata Party puts off organisational elections

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MAY 31. Unrest in the Samata Party has cast a shadow on its organisational elections which have been put off by six weeks.

The party, which was to have completed the schedule of electing its new president by month-end, has postponed the polls to the third week of July.

It would now elect its president at the party plenary session being held here on July 13-14, the Samata Party general secretary, Aneel Hegde, said here today.

The organisation has completed its membership drive and the State-level elections would be completed by June 25. Interestingly, the party had recently annulled the elections to its Jharkhand unit due to the tussle between the tribals and non-tribals over leadership of the unit.

Similarly, the feud for control of the organisation in Bihar, the only other State where the Samata Party had a strong presence, witnessed a proxy battle between the party president, George Fernandes, and senior leader and Railway Minister, Nitish Kumar.

The pro-Nitish Kumar faction forced some leaders of the pro-Fernandes faction out of the Bihar unit and later passed a resolution seeking the suspension of five leaders, which has since been accepted by Mr. Fernandes.

Mr. Fernandes took over as party president in September 2001 after easing out the then chief, V.V. Krishna Rao, who was later elevated to the top post when Jaya Jaitly resigned in the wake of the Tehelka tapes episode.

Meanwhile, continuing its expulsion spree, the Samata Party showed the door to its former Tamil Nadu unit president, T.N. Nandakumar.

The latter was recently taken into custody for allegedly taking money for providing Government jobs.

On Monday, the party had expelled the Bihar MLA, Sunil Pandey, who was allegedly involved in the kidnapping of a Patna doctor.

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