DECEMBER 6: The Janata Dal (United) will not go it alone in the Bihar Assembly polls scheduled for February and will contest it under the banner of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Union Civil Aviation Minister and JD(U) president Sharad Yadav said here on Sunday.``The NDA will fight elections in Bihar as the people are favouring the coalition culture at present,'' he told mediapersons. He, however, evaded a question on which of the four Central ministers hailing from Bihar was interested in state politics.He said all 22 parties in the coalition Government would strive to strengthen the NDA banner as no single party had been able to win an absolute majority in the recent Lok Sabha poll.Yadav also stated that the three-month-old merger process of the Janata Dal (U), Samata Party and Lok Shakti at the national level would also be completed later this month. ``The party leaders of all the parties had met on December 3 to expedite the merger.''The Civil Aviation Minister disclosed that theCentre would soon bring out a new civil aviation policy to help increase and expand airlinks within the country, which at present, he said, was not very satisfactory. He added that the Government was open to private investment in building airports also.Hinting at favouring private participation in the next policy, Yadav said civil aviation governance would continue to wrest with the Government. He also said the ministry was ready for joint ventures with foreign airlines to improve the condition of international carrier Air India, ``which was in a bad shape''. He, however, said the Government did not intend to have participation of foreign airlines in the domestic sector, which was open to private hands within the country.The Centre would try to find ways to revive domestic private airlines which could not survive under the open sky policy, he said. He disclosed that the Government was considering building four more international airports and had identified Gaya for one such airport, to help promoteBuddhist tourism there. Yadav said he favoured early completion of the Amritsar international airport, for which he had already given directions to his ministry officials.Regarding the Women's Reservation Bill, the minister evaded questions of his reservations on the Bill: ``I am not against the Bill, but women belonging to the weaker sections of society could not be neglected.''``There are certain limitations in one's expressions when one is part of the Government at the Centre,'' he added.
