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Top BJP leaders riled over JD's inclusion in NDA

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Resentment continues to brew in the topmost echelons of the Bharatiya Janata Party over the inclusion of the Sharad Yadav faction of the Janata Dal in the ruling National Democratic Alliance, with senior party leaders contending that the saffron party had been taken for a ride by vested interests.

"Where is the question of the Janata Dal-Sharad being included in the NDA? Has it got any party symbol to fight the election? Certain people have assumed things for themselves but as far as I am concerned, the Samata Party (headed by George Fernandes) and the Lok Shakthi (headed by Ramakrishna Hegde) are very much in the NDA," said a visibly agitated BJP vice-president Jagdish Prasad Mathur today.

According to Mathur, ''The Samata Party and the Lok Shakthi have not yet been dissolved by their respective party presidents and, therefore, to talk about these parties being merged with any faction of the Janata Dal is a travesty of the truth." He claimed that no BJP leader had consented to the inclusion of the JD (Sharad) in the NDA.

Asked to comment on the claims of the reunited JD leaders like Fernandes and Hegde that they had apprised Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee about the reunification of the Janata Dal and its joining the NDA, Mathur said, "They might have given their point of view but they certainly did not get the consent of any BJP leader."

Another BJP vice-president, Jana Krishnamurthy, echoing Mathur's views, pointed out that "the BJP leadership will not allow any sort of mischief by other political parties to cramp its style." Asked to elaborate, Krishnamurthy said until and unless the prime minister and the Union home minister personally gave their consent about the inclusion of the reunited Janata Dal into the NDA, "one should take such things with a pinch of salt."

However, a veteran BJP worker, who did not want to be identified, emphasised that the crucial NDA meeting scheduled for July 31 was bound to be stormy with the BJP leaders buttonholing Fernandes to explain how and why the Karnataka chief minister had found a place in the reunited Janata Dal.

Mathur had stated yesterday that the Karnataka unit of the party was opposed to the state chief minister tooth and nail because of the latter's constant diatribe against the saffron party. He had told reporters that the BJP's Karnataka unit was up in arms against the central leadership on this matter.

Samata Party spokesman Digvijay Singh, however, reiterated that his party and the Lok Shakthi had consulted the BJP on their merger with the JD and its subsequently joining the NDA.

He said, "Certain sections of the BJP were now acting strangely and raising imaginary objections when the reunited JD's inclusion in the NDA had been approved and sealed following the BJP leaders' approval." He said he did not wish to speculate on what would happen during the NDA meeting on July 31.

BJP chief Kushabhau Thakre told reporters today that the question of "who would be included or excluded in the NDA will be decided in its meeting on Saturday (July 31)."

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