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Samata crisis a matter of the past: Nitish

Senior Samata Party leader and Union Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar Tuesday said the crisis arising out of holding of a parallel convention of a few party MPs to re-elect, Raghunath Jha, MP from Gopalganj, Bihar unit president was finally over.

The differences cropped up over the contentious issue of party's merger with the Janata Dal-United and election to the state president are now matter of past, Kumar said in Patna.

Kumar said he would soon announce the name of the party's state president. Samata rebel Raghunath Jha Monday night agreed to step down as chief of the party's state unit under a compromise formula worked out by Defence Minister, George Fernandes, who ruled out the party's merger with the JD-U, pulling the Samata back from the brink of a split.

He however said he would tread cautiously in selecting the state president.

Referring to the dinner meeting hosted by the defence minister to hammer out a rapprochment, Kumar said he could not attend that meeting as his Bihar programme was finalised much before.

Jha too had Monday that the dissidents had agreed to treat as null and void their parallel meeting in Patna on January 5 when he was elected as the president of the party's Bihar unit.

"There is no controversy in the party as such... Minor irritants will always remain in a democratic set up," he reiterated.

Nitish Kumar also announced he would extend full support to Rashtriya Janata Dal working president, Ranjan Prasad Yadav, if he wanted to provide an alternative government in Bihar.

"Anyone who stands up against the reign of terror of Laloo Prasad Yadav will immortalise himself... Any such move in this direction will get his full support," Kumar said.

He said his party would embark on a long campaign to expose the state government's apathy towards problems facing the farmers by holding district and division level meetings.

Kumar expressed serious concern over the state government's lackadaisical attitude towards improving the irrigation system.

He rapped the state government for the lack of administrative control because of which spurious seeds and fertilisers have flooded the market.

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