New Delhi, Jan 7: Samata Party rebels, opposing the party's merger with the JD (U), today decided to boycott the party's National Council meeting beginning in Mysore tomorrow but gave Samata leader and Defence Minister George Fernandes a week's time to sort out the contentious issue.Fernandes held another round of parleys this morning with the rebels, opposed to the merger, who told him that they would not be able to make it to Mysore.They, however, gave Fernandes time till January 14 to sort out the tangle.Fernandes made a last-ditch attempt to persuade the dissidents to attend the National Council meeting but rebel leader Raghunath Jha, MP, emerging from the talks, told reporters that "we told Fernandes that there is no point in going to Mysore unless the matter is sorted out.""We will wait till January 14 and then take a final decision," Jha told PTI here.Jha was elected president of the Bihar party unit at a parallel meeting of the dissidents in Patna on January 5.Asked if the rebels would meet Lok Sabha Speaker G M C Balayogi and request him to treat them as a separate entity, Jha, along with another rebel MP Prabhunath Singh, said "at least not till January 14".Nitish Kumar said he was always prepared to abide by whatever Fernandes decides and expessed hope that the crisis would be resolved at the earliest.Kumar, however, did not comment on a possible compromise formula that he would head the party at national level and Jha would continue to do so in Bihar.
