Samata, Lok Shakti threaten to quit NDA

The leaders of the DMK and the Telugu Desam, M Karunanidhi and Chandrababu Naidu, respectively, who have come out in support of the proposal for JD joining the NDA, are also being invited for the rally along with National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah.

Fernandes and Hegde are meeting BJP leader L K .Advani tomorrow to convey their sentiments.

When Hegde, after he emerged from the meeting, wasasked about the statements of BJP leaders asking the Lok Shakti and Samata Party to observe restraint, he remarked: “We wish this wisdom had dawned on them earlier.”

Asked if he stood by yesterday’s strong statement by a Lok Shakti functionary in Bangalore, he said: “There’s no question of standing by or contradicting that statement. That is the party line.”

Sources said Fernandes and Hegde were livid about the BJP leaders counselling them about etiquette. “Who are they to tell us how to behave?” Fernandes is believed to have said at the meeting. When it was pointed out that the BJP may object to the holding of a rally, Fernandes observed that when the BJP organised a rally in Patna recently it had not invited the Samata Party. “If the BJP is building up its party, we are building up ours. It is our business to unite with whoever we want,” he told the meeting.

The dominant mood at the meeting, which was also attended by Karnataka Chief Minister J H Patel and Samata Party leader Nitish Kumar, wasthat since the three parties had come this far, retracing their steps would be politically suicidal.

Fernandes, when asked by reporters about the resistance from the BJP to the proposal to make the JD a constituent of the NDA, said he did not know why this was being played up. “We have come together on a platform which is very clear in its political line, namely strengthening forces that are democratic and patriotic, particularly in the context of national security,” he said.

He also said that the three parties which have come together were determined to see that the NDA was strengthened and that it returned to power under Atal Behari Vajpayee’s leadership. He added that their intention was to “have enough strength in Parliament to prevent anyone from blackmailing the Government.”

Asked what was the purpose of the August 7 rally, Patel said: “It is to show our strength.”

The leaders met at the residence of Hegde after the Janata Dal (Sharad Yadav) had its national executive meeting where theproposal for expansion of the Janata parivar and the unified party’s inclusion in the NDA was ratified unanimously.

Yadav, addressing reporters, said that two-thirds of the national council which is an elected body had signed affidavits pledging support to his group. Support had also come from the Bihar, Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Pondicherry and Tamil Nadu units.

This group also passed a resolution taking strong objection to former prime minister H D Deve Gowda “masquerading as the president of the Janata Dal”. Yadav told the meeting this “nefarious exercise” was engineered by Gowda and S.Jaipal Reddy who had been suspended from the party.

The Gowda group at its press conference also came out with claims of support from various state units, legislators from different states and members of the political affairs committee and the national council.

Gowda, whose faction is holding its own national executive meeting tomorrow, swore by thepolicy of equidistance from both the BJP and the Congress, when asked if his party would have any truck with the Congress. Similarly, he said there was no question of allying with the Rashtriya Janata Dal.