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Laloo scares BJP, Samata into infighting

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Rashtriya Janata Dal president Laloo Prasad Yadav has succeeded in putting a spoke in the National Democratic Alliance's wheel.

Thus, the Samata Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party are still quarrelling over seat-sharing for the Bihar assembly election. Reason: both parties do not want to fight in RJD strongholds.

Top BJP officials told rediff.com that though the three major NDA members -- the BJP, Samata Party and Janata Dal (United) -- are upbeat about their prospects in the state, "the reality is that the BJP and the Samata are wary of facing Laloo Prasad's RJD in quite a few constituencies in north and central Bihar."

But BJP spokesman M Venkaiah Naidu tried to give the impression that the "identification" of seats is still going on. He contended that the BJP and Samata "have arrived at an understanding for 200 seats" and would have an amicable arrangement soon.

Naidu however was ill at ease to explain why the BJP and the Samata are still mired in an avoidable controversy barely 24 hours before the deadline for the withdrawal of candidature.

The BJP's central election committee will meet again Friday to decide the seat-sharing arrangement with its other two allies for the final phase of the poll.

But party sources pointed out that if the BJP-Samata "tangle" is not resolved tonight, the two allies would have "friendly contests in at least a few seats."

Since the Samata Party and the BJP are apparently fighting shy of contesting in RJD-dominated areas, their political differences are bound to be capitalised by Laloo Prasad. The former chief minister, who filed his nomination from Danapur, has already managed to recharge his supporters.

During a whirlwind tour of the constituency which is just 20km from Patna, Yadav declared that the seat-sharing arrangement among the three NDA constituents were shallow and would be exposed soon because of their inherent contradictions. Now that the Samata-BJP differences are being keenly observed in political quarters, it is natural that Yadav will latch on to them.

Senior BJP vice-president Jagdish Prasad Mathur shrugged at the Samata-BJP's inability to release their list of candidates.

"I would not like to comment when you know that our leadership is engaged in sorting out the differences between these two parties," he said.

Samata Party chief Jaya Jaitley was philosophical. "Que sera sera," she smiled.

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