Chargesheet against Laloo poised to split JD

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The Janata Dal seems to be headed for a split over the chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation against Laloo Prasad Yadav and his ministerial colleagues in the multi-million rupee fodder scam, with the Bihar chief minister reiterating his resolve to form a separate party.

Laloo Yadav's critics, both at Patna and New Delhi, clamoured for his resignation and the dismissal of the Bihar government even as he told his supporters about the need to part ways with his detractors and form a separate party.

However, Laloo Yadav's supporters, including Union ministers Kanti Singh and Jai Narayan Nishad, MPs Som Pal and M A Fatmi told a press conference that they would meet Prime Minister I K Gujral and urge him to form a panel to go into the CBI's alleged bias when investigating the fodder scam.

This move appears to be just a way Laloo Yadav's supporters have found to appease him since the chargesheet has left little scope for such appeals, especially since the prime minister himself had said the Bihar chief minister should step down. But Laloo Yadav's supporters could be hoping to spoil the CBI's image as an impartial investigating agency to justify the formation of a new party.

According to senior United Front leaders, the Laloo Yadav controversy has reached a point of no return and political normalcy in Bihar could only be restored if the chief minister resigned. If he did not, the leaders said, the law might pursue its course and result in the dismissal of the state government.

At a meeting on Tuesday, the anti-Laloo lobby, including former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, made a strong case for dismissing the Bihar government if the chief minister did not resign.

The Left constituents of the United Front, particularly Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet, is understood to have impressed on the prime minister that Laloo Yadav's exhortations that his followers demonstrate against the CBI chargesheet, had unleashed turmoil in the state. Such undemocratic conduct by the chief minister and his supporters was a challenge to the country's democratic traditions and needed tough handling, Surjeet told Gujral.