From Jal Khambata

NEW DELHI: In a day of swift development, the Janata Dal split on Wednesday within hours of its President Sharad Yadav merging two BJP allies—Samta Party and Lokshakti—into the party and announcing that a new national executive would decide the electoral arrangement with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

The dissidents quickly expelled him for going against the majority opinion at the party’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC) and installed former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda as the new President. His name was proposed by none else but his arch rival and former Janata Dal President S R Bommai.

The BJP, however, affirmed that it was up to its state unit in Karnataka to decide the "utility" or "liability" of Chief Minister J H Patel who masterminded the merger of the splintered groups into the Janata Dal at the instance of his "guru" and Union Commerce Minister Ramakrishna Hegde. The state unit has been opposing tooth and nail any truck with Patel.

MAHARASHTRA GROUP: Maharashtra’s wavering socialists—Madhu Dandavate, Mrinal Gore and Bapu Kaldate—changed their stand in the last minute by disassociating from Yadav’s unification of the splintered groups who had formed separate parties and allied with the BJP in the last election.

Janata Dal General Secretary Bapu Kaldate said 11 of the 16 members of the party’s highest decision-making body of PAC endorsed the decision to replace Sharad Yadav with Deve Gowda. They included Siddaramaiah, Jaipal Reddy, Srikant Jena, Mrs B T Lalita Naik, C M Ibrahim and Maulana Obaidullah Khan Azmi.

GUJRAL UNDECIDED: Former Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral opted not to join either group and take his own time to make up his mind. Initially he was totally opposed to have anything to do with parties linked with the BJP but he was seen wavering later.

The Janata Dal was already going through pangs of the divide drama since last week but the final divide came at 11 in the morning on Wednesday at a Press conference when Sharad Yadav welcomed both George Fernandes and Ramakrishna Hegde for bringing back their respective parties back into the Janata Dal’s fold.

BJD CONSIDERING: The Biju Janata Dal, yet another splinter JD group and an ally of the BJP, was still considering the merger move but Sharad Yadav was confident that it would also return to the parent party to give more teeth to it to deal with the BJP on equal footing.

BJP DILEMMA: Both Sharad Yadav as well as BJP spokesman and General Secretary Narendra Modi were cautious in spelling out the unified Janata Dal’s relationship with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), a front formed by the BJP to contest the elections unitedly under the leadership of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It is, however, no secret that the unification was initiated only as a part of the move to contest elections under the NDA banner.

Yadav said he would have to reconstitute the national executive to accommodate the friends returning home and it would be up to the new executive to decide whether to be a part of the NDA or not. Confronted with volley of questions at the BJP daily Press briefing, Modi said it was for the NDA to discuss and take stand.

Asked how Hegde and Fernandes can attend the NDA since the parties they represented had already merged into Sharad Yadav’s Janata Dal, Modi quipped, saying they would attend the meeting in their "original capacity." No date has yet been fixed for the NDA meeting.

As regards the BJP’s stand since the Karnataka unit is opposed to accept Chief Minister J H Patel in any electoral alliance, Modi said the Central Election Committee that is meeting on August 2 and 3 would take the decision and "till then no comments."

WAIT IN HARYANA: Modi also disclosed that the BJP would like to wait and watch the fluid situation in Haryana for the next two days before deciding whether to support or not formation of another government after the resignation of Chief Minister Bansi Lal amid his own party splitting on Tuesday.