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Lok Shakti hopes JD row will end

In an apparent move to pressurise the Karnataka unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party to fall in line, the Lok Shakti will hold a joint rally at Bangalore on August 7 along with the Sharad Yadav faction of the Janata Dal and the Samata Party.

The decision was announced by Karnataka Chief Minister J H Patel after his meeting with Samata Party president George Fernandes, party leader Nitish Kumar, Lok Shakti leader Ramakrishna Hegde and Janata Dal president Sharad Yadav.

The Karnataka BJP unit is opposed to the inclusion of the breakaway JD faction in the National Democratic Alliance on the ground that they are a liability and the anti-incumbency factor of the Patel government would affect their poll prospects.

The BJP will not be invited to the meeting. "Do they (BJP) invite us for their rallies in Bihar?" said a top Samata Party leader.

Lok Shakti sources expressed optimism that the issue would be resolved at the NDA meeting on Saturday.

The sources said barring Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani, who is backing the Karnataka BJP unit, other leaders were veering round to the view that additional forces are welcome to the NDA.

The sources said a formula acceptable both to the Lok Shakti and the BJP would emerge at the meeting.

Commenting on the BJP leaders' call for restraint, Hegde said it was good that wisdom has dawned on them now.

He made it clear that his party's decision to unite with the Janata Dal was irrevocable and the statement made by his party functionary N V Sriganesh was the official line.

Sriganesh had said that his party would choose an alternative course if the state BJP unit continued to be adamant on the Janata Dal issue.

UNI

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