Search the Internet          Tips

RJD dissidents to fight to a finish

Even as Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav ruled out any threat to the Rabri Devi ministry and charged the dissidents with being involved in a sinister plan to bring the state under President's Rule again, the dissident camp led by Rajya Sabha member Ranjan Prasad Yadav seems determined for a change in leadership in Bihar.

RJD president has accused senior National Democratic Alliance leaders like Ram Vilas Paswan, Nitish Kumar, Sharad Yadav and Sushil Kumar Modi, who have announced their unconditional support for Ranjan Yadav for forming an alternative government, of plotting to destabilise the Rabri ministry.

"The NDA is making frantic efforts to create a crisis in the RJD by using the dissidents but I have faced many such revolts over the past one decade and I know how to tackle such a situation", Yadav said.

He believes that dissident activity at a time when he was fighting against the entry of multinationals into the country was not linked with the demand for change of leadership but to divert people's attention from the struggle for toppling the "anti-nation and anti-people" Vajpayee government.

Dissidents claimed that more than 70 MLAs had so far joined their camp and more would follow suit.

A dissident leader, not wishing to be named, however told PTI that because of the delay by Ranjan Yadav in leading the rebels' charge against the leadership, the 'oust Laloo-Rabri campaign' has failed to gain momentum so far.

Political observers believed that the silence of Ranjan Yadav may be a sign of lack of adequate support of MLAs to engineer a split in the RJD Legislature Party.

The observers maintained that Ranjan had in the past fuelled dissidence and later bought peace with Laloo when accord more importance and obliged with sops to his supporters.

Bihar Minister for Public Health Engineering Rama Devi had also challenged Ranjan to come out openly if he really wanted a change in leadership. He said change of leadership is an internal matter of RJD and BJP, Samata or any other party should not be concerned about it.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister S P Tekriwal ruled out possibility of his resignation from the Rabri Devi ministry.

RJD parliamentary party leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said the present crisis in the party was temporary and would soon be resolved.

Tell us what you think of this report