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The Rediff Interview/ Sharad Yadav

'We regard the Samata Party as a mitra'

The spacious lawn in 1B Maulana Azad Road -- the Janata Dal (United) headquarters -- is teeming with party workers animatedly discussing the "setback" facing the party. Party workers are still debating the Samata Party's parting of ways with the JD (U) over the issue of who will head the united entity. But they snap to attention when JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav's car rolls to a stop before them.

"Sharad Yadav ki jai" the workers shout. He smiles, waves to them and enters his office.

"It is been a tiring day for me," Yadav says and appeals to a television cameraman "not to capture my sound bytes when I an unaware."

JD(U) spokesperson Mohan Prakash loudly dissuades the errant cameramen from videotaping the party chief as he indulges in light banter with a clutch of waiting reporters. Yadav makes no secret of the fact that he would rather not talk to mediamen about the developments in his party at this juncture because "hamare beech baatein abhi chal rahi hai" (We are still in the midst of discussions). He sends Prakash to talk to the television reporters and warns Tara Shankar Sahay that he will entertain thode bahut sawaal ( a few questions only). Excerpts from the interview:

The bubble of optimism about unity within the JD(U) has burst sooner than expected. Now that George Fernandes' Samata Party has decided to go its own way in the impending Bihar assembly elections, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav is ecstatic. Please comment.

You are jumping to hasty conclusions. Such things happen in politics and there is no need for undue concern. One JD (U) constituent had made his views known. So what? There are other constituents in it and they are very much united.

You give the impression that everything is hunky-dory in your party but that isn't really the case, is it? Won't Fernandes's desire to break away from the JD(U) help the RJD?

You aren't aware of the facts. We in the JD(U), and those in the Samata Party, have not stopped talking to each other. As I pointed out, one among us might have taken one line, a particular course of action, but there is nothing that cannot be resolved with dialogue. We regard the Samata Party as a mitra (friend) and we have nothing but mitra bhav (friendship) for it. And don't forget that the National Democratic Alliance together won 41 parliamentary seats from Bihar.

That could be possible with unity among all the constituents, including the Janata Dal, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samata Party.

I want to emphasise that the credit for the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) victory in Bihar must go equally to all of us who fought in Bihar against the misrule and jungle raj of Laloo Yadav and his chief minister wife Rabri Devi.

Thus, you can see, God forbid, that the inability of the NDA to form a government in Bihar will have a direct bearing for its survival at the Centre.

As for your question about Laloo Yadav benefiting from developments in the JD(U), I am in a position to say that the happiness of the people of this state and the RJD president are like the snake and the mongoose; they can never reconcile. To be frank, even I did not realise the extent of disillusionment and discouragement the people of Bihar had undergone under Lalooji and Rabri Devi. Ask anyone, today Laloo Yadav is a bad word in Bihar.

How do you explain the Samata Party's resolve to fight 124 assembly seats in Bihar? Does not that send wrong signals to the people of the state?

At the risk of repetition, I point out again that if a certain claim has been made or a certain position taken among us in the JD(U) and NDA pertaining to the Bihar assembly elections, things are yet at a preliminary stage. I mean, there are still thirteen weeks to go and discussions among us are progressing. So you need not lose sleep over it.

Media reports say that there are four potential contenders for the Bihar chief minister's post -- you and Ram Vilas Paswan from the JD, Nitish Kumar from the Samata Party and Sushil Kumar Modi and another BJP leader from Patna. So who will ultimately be projected as the NDA chief minister in Bihar?

Simple. The elected NDA MLAs will choose the chief minister and that is as it should be.

A plethora of potential NDA chief ministerial hopefuls in Bihar are bound to present a picture that denotes lust for power...

That may be your impression. Look at our central government -- it has 24 coalition partners. We are running the government fine. In a democracy, these things are there, so why must one get unnecessarily bothered?

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