COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Gujral convinces Naveen Patnaik to drop pro-BJP campaign

The crisis in the Janata Dal's Orissa unit seems to have subsided, following party MP Naveen Patnaik's meeting with Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral yesterday.

The late Biju Patnaik's son has been spearheading a campaign in the Dal's state unit for a limited seat adjustment with the Bharatiya Janata Party. Only this, he contended, would ensure a one-to-one fight with the Congress in the state.

A major chunk of the Dal unit in Orissa has demanded that it be given the freedom to enter into local-level adjustments with various parties, including the BJP, to defeat the Congress. The party leadership has so far resisted this move.

Besides Gujral, the MP met Human Resources Minister S R Bommai and Information and Broadcasting Minister S Jaipal Reddy. The senior leaders seem to have impressed on the state unit the need for toeing the party line -- of fighting both the Congress and the BJP.

Some Orissa JD leaders had even threatened to break the the party to defeat the ruling Congress.

JD chief Sharad Yadav, however, has tried to play down the issue, saying the media had blown up a small problem.

He said some leaders, who had their moorings with the BJP or had an axe to grind, were trying to create confusion. Now that the issue had been settled, even those people would fall in line and there may not be any necessity to take any action. ''We will not do anything to sacrifice the party's ideology and interest,'' he added.

Meanwhile, BJP Orissa unit president Joel Oram confirmed that 38 JD MLAs and MPs, led by Patnaik, are interested in joining the BJP or forming a regional front with the party.

He denied the Left parties's allegation that the party was trying to break the JD in the state at the behest of the Congress. He said, ''Our call was to consolidate the anti-Congress votes in the state.''

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report