Cong asks Laloo to go

PATNA, July 10: Retracting from its earlier stand of extending support to the Laloo Prasad Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal RJD government,...

PATNA, July 10: Retracting from its earlier stand of extending support to the Laloo Prasad Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal RJD government, the Congress in a swift tactical change yesterday said it would support 8220;any of his Laloo8217;s nominees heading the RJD government in Bihar8221;. To add to the fledgling government8217;s woes, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha Soren today also refused to support it during the confidence vote in the Assembly8217;s monsoon session beginning on Monday.

The JMM S will not bail out the government in the 324-member House, party vice-president Suraj Mandal told reporters at Sindri. The RJD, which claimed support of 136 MLAs and 11 Independents, is 16 short of a simple majority.

The change of stand by the Congress has unnerved the beleaguered Chief Minister, coming as it is in the wake of AICC President Sitaram Kesri advising Laloo to step down, though the move has been welcomed in Congress circles.

Sources maintain that a delegation of senior Congress leaders called on Kesri to apprise him of the latest political situation in Bihar and impressed upon him that any move to support Laloo at this stage would prove suicidal. The delegation led by Congress Legislature Party leader Ramashray Prasad Singh also informed Kesri that any such move could also witness a large scale influx from the party.

However, the sources maintain that more than anything, it was the future prospects of the Laloo Prasad government that forced Kesri to change his stand. There is a general perception in the party that the Laloo government may not last long even after Congress goes all out to support it.

Kesri, the sources maintain, would not like to antagonise the whole lot of UF leaders just to keep Laloo in good humour and in power.

In fact, according to the sources, the Congress attitude hardened due to the pacifist policy adopted by the chief minister towards the JMM, which was completely against the official stand of the Congress. Sources close to the chief minister confide that it was on July 8 8212; just before the submission of the last list of legislators to the Speaker 8212; that Laloo came to know of the stand taken by the Congress. This led him to strengthen his relations with the JMM.

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JMM-Congress relations had soured in the wake of the JMM bribery case. Congress leaders feel that the chief minister, by making certain concessions, was simply providing a legal platform to the JMM leadership to protect itself.

However sources close to Laloo do not rule out the possibility of him naming one of his close allies as the new leader of the RJD.

Karunanidhi against isolating Laloo

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M Karunanidhi on Thursday said In Chennai that it would be unwise to reject the support of the newly formed Rashtriya Janata Dal RJD led by Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav to the United Front government.

The stand taken by some UF party men that the RJD should not form part of the UF and that the three RJD Union Ministers supporting Laloo should be dropped from the cabinet, had been done without consulting the DMK, or the Tamil Maanila Congress, he said.