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Fernandes prefers Bihar assembly by-poll
to fleet review rehearsal

Defence Minister George Fernandes on Friday preferred campaigning in the Asthawan by-election in his parliamentary constituency Nalanda to being present at the rehearsal for the International Fleet Review in Bombay. The President will review ships from 29 countries, which are participating in the exercise scheduled for Saturday.

Fernandes revised his programme to campaign for the by-election scheduled for February 19.

Fernandes is not the only Union minister campaigning in Asthawan, not with the intention of defeating Rashtriya Janata Dal candidate Pushpanjaya, but to settle score among themselves.

The intense campaigning for the by-poll is being seen as a last ditch battle for supremacy in Bihar within the National Democratic Alliance between Union Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar and Communications Minister Ram Vilas Paswan.

Notwithstanding the efforts by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Union Home Minister L K Advani for rapprochement between the two Cabinet colleagues, there appears to be no possibility of a compromise.

The state Bharatiya Janata Party unit, which is considered close to Paswan's Lok Janshakti, was faced with a difficult choice and preferred to remain neutral.

However, on Thursday night, it decided to throw its lot behind the Samata Party candidate as he appears to be in a stronger position to challenge Pushpanjaya.

The importance both Samata and the Lok Janshakti attach to this by-poll, which otherwise has no political significance whatsoever, is gauged from the fact that Nitish Kumar has been virtually camping in Patna for the last five days.

Fernandes was in the constituency three times in the last four days. Civil Aviation Minister Sharad Yadav, whose Janata Dal (United) decided to support the Samata candidate, addressed three poorly attended public meetings at three villages in Asthawan.

State Samata chief Raghunath Jha, who has now mended fences with Nitish Kumar, shared the dais with Sharad Yadav on Thursday.

Union Minister of State for Railways Digvijay Singh (Samata Party) is also expected to join the campaign shortly.

Paswan seems to have forgotten that he is an Union minister and is visiting almost every village in the constituency.

However, the presence of all these heavy weights has not perturbed RJD's lone campaigner Laloo Prasad Yadav. He appears to be confident of his candidate's victory considering the manner in which the NDA constituents are fighting among themselves.

Last week, Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly Sushil Kumar Modi of the BJP, appealed to NDA Convenor George Fernandes to sort out the differences among the constituents.

But much to Modi's embarrassment, the defence minister himself decided to campaign for his party candidate instead of brokering a truce.

The Asthawan seat fell vacant following the death of the RJD's R P Sharma, father of Pushpanjaya. Sharma won the seat as an independent candidate in last February's elections but later extended support to the RJD.

A visit to the constituency revealed that the contest is between Pushpanjaya and the Samata Party's Satish Kumar.

Though Paswan claims to be the leader of Harijans, it appears the RJD is all set to walk away with a huge chunk of the Dalit vote.

The RJD enjoys another advantage as both the Samata and Lok Janshakti have put up Kurmi candidates with another influential Kurmi candidate in the fray as an Independent.

NDA supporters are unhappy with the unfolding scenario as their leaders appear to be keener on settling scores among themselves rather than defeating the RJD candidate.

Hardly any bigwig had campaigned when Chief Minister Rabri Devi contested the by-election last May.

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