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JD asks PM to drop RJD ministers

Janata Dal leaders today mounted pressure on Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral to drop the three Rashtriya Janata Dal ministers from his caretaker ministry as they had joined hands with the Congress for the general election.

JD secretary general Bapu Kaldate told the media after the party central secretariat meeting that there was no logic in the RJD ministers's continuance -- Kanti Singh, Raguvansh Prasad Singh and Captain Jai Narain Prasad Nishad -- in the government after the United Front core committee left it to the ministers's 'conscience', virtually asking them to quit.

Raguvansh Prasad Singh, on the other hand, has maintained that ''our (ministers's) conscience is with the prime minister right from the day the RJD parted ways with the Janata Dal''. He has indicated that the ministers would not resign from the Cabinet.

Kaldate said the JD's party line was very clear and these ministers should not have any place in the government.

He reacted sharply to RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav's comments that he was ready to accept JD leaders minus former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, Union Railway Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and party chief Sharad Yadav.

''We hate such statements. Having floated another party, Laloo Yadav had no business to interfere in the JD's internal affairs. All I want to say is it is not good politics,'' Kaldate said.

UNI

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