JD (U) denies crisis over Hegde issue

NEW DELHI, OCT 14: Janata Dal (United) today denied any crisis in the party in the wake of dropping of its senior leader Ramakrishna Hegd...

NEW DELHI, OCT 14: Janata Dal (United) today denied any crisis in the party in the wake of dropping of its senior leader Ramakrishna Hegde from the previous Vajpayee ministry, but said his experience and talent would have been an asset for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government.

"JD (U) leaders Sharad Yadav and Digvijay Singh have met Hegde, who made it clear that he will not take any step that may harm the party or the Government," JD (U) spokesman Mohan Prakash told reporters here.

He said Hegde felt that "the entire issue is a family affair, to be resolved amicably".

Prakash, however, said it would have been better if Hegde, with his long political experience and talent, had been included in the new Ministry.

To a question, he said there was no dearth of talent in the party, but everyone could not be accommodated due to limited ministerial berths.

Hegde had said yesterday that there was no grace in the decision not to retain him in the Ministry and held Defence Minister George Fernandes responsible for it.

"If I had been consulted, I could have given some advice (to Fernandes). It is not that I wanted to continue as a Minister. This could have been done gracefully," he had said.

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He said he never had any inkling of what was to come as Fernandes, as leader of JD (U), was dealing with the Prime Minister on ministerial berths for the party MPs.