Gujral caught in JD-RJD crossfire
Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi
Several United Front constituents are up in the arms against Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral for his reported soft stand towards former Bihar chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal.
Ever since his release on bail in the Rs 9.5 billion fodder scam, Laloo Yadav has been spewing venom against his erstwhile Janata Dal colleagues like Sharad Yadav, H D Deve Gowda and Ram Vilas Paswan.
In turn, the trio has been mounting pressure on Gujral, demanding that the three RJD ministers -- Kanti Singh, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and Captain Jai Narain Nishad -- be dropped from the UF ministry at the Centre. They present the recent tie-up between the Congress and the RJD as the reason.
The demand is obviously aimed at spiting Laloo Yadav who has just declined to pull out the three RJD ministers, stating that there was no justification to drop them on the eve of the Lok Sabha poll.
Caught in the crossfire between the three JD leaders and the RJD chief is Gujral.
The caretaker prime minster seems unwilling to take any action against Laloo Yadav as he is still grateful to the former chief minister for facilitating his election to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar.
Even when the UF leaders had been clamoring for action against
Laloo Yadav for his alleged involvement in the fodder scam,
Gujral had maintained a silence.
But now, Gujral appears to be in a delicate position with the JD and UF leaders demanding the three RJD ministers's ouster and asking Gujral to do the 'dirty' job.
To complicate matters further, the RJD chief has dangled a bait towards the prime minister. The former said he was willing to accommodate the 'decent man' in any Lok Sabha constituency from Bihar.
EARLIER REPORTS:
JD asks PM to drop RJD ministers
Laloo vows to ruin JD
Laloo says he will align with Congress, JMM
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