George pacifies JD leaders

The Samata chief patiently heard these leaders8217; complaint against Nitish Kumar who while responding to Paswan8217;s call for an anti-Laloo front had stated that Paswan could not have won his Hajipur seat without the Samata-BJP8217;s help in the 1998 elections. He had also said that despite this he had not reciprocated by casting his lot with the Vajpayee government during the confidence motion.

Fernandes also had a separate meetingwith Ganesh Yadav yesterday.

The JD leaders have been emphasising that Paswan8217;s statements for an anti-Laloo front which has been construed as a coming together of the JD and the Samata-BJP combine should not be viewed as a sign of weakness.

They pointed out that in the 1998 elections though the JD won only the Hajipur seat it had emerged as the spoiler, upsetting the calculations of both the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the BJP-Samata combine in several seats. There were many instances in which the votes polled by the Janata Dal would have turned the eventual victors into losers.

In an analysis of the 1998 results, they argue that if the JD had teamed up with the RJD, the combine would have swept the polls winning 47 out of the 54 seats in the State. On the other hand, if the JD were to have tied up with the BJP-Samata combine, the RJD would have won only two of the 17 seats it won.

The objective of the JD leaders seems to be to make out a strong case for its share of seats in the event of their partyteaming up with the BJP-Samata combine for the coming Lok Sabha elections.

Meanwhile, in a significant development, Laloo Prasad Yadav today declared that he would contest the elections from Madhepura this time too. There had been intense speculation over the last few days that the RJD chief had promised JD president Sharad Yadav that he would leave the seat, along with five others for the JD. There were reports that Laloo would shift from Madhepura where he had defeated Sharad in the last elections to Chapra.