Laloo's political health deteriorates as patch-up efforts fail

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Laloo Prasad Yadav's chances of victory in the Janata Dal presidential poll have dimmed as senior party leaders failed yet again in bringing about a rapprochement between the Bihar chief minister and JD working president Sharad Yadav.

With the Delhi high court hearing petitions by Laloo Yadav and JD returning officer P K Samantray, the JD president pleaded with senior leaders like Madhu Dandavate and Bapu Kaldate that he should be allowed to retain the post. He was willing, he said, to give all the powers to Sharad Yadav in his capacity as working president.

Such an arrangement, Laloo Yadav said, should continue for at least six months, enabling him to counter the charges levelled against him in the Rs 9.5 billion fodder scam.

Twentyseven JD MPs, all supporters of Laloo Yadav, met the senior leaders in three separate groups and pleaded their mentor's case. The MPs also made a similar representation to Prime Minister I K Gujral, underscoring that this was the only way the Janata Dal crisis could be defused.

However, a JD general secretary said the party was in no mood to grant Laloo Yadav a reprieve. Laloo Yadav's political health, he said, was deteriorating sharply because of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda's efforts. Deve Gowda, whom Laloo Yadav antagonised after the last UF government's fall, is adamant that the Bihar chief minister makes way for Sharad Yadav.