NEW DELHI: The Bhartiya Janata Party leadership has bowed to its state units in Karnataka and Haryana by deciding to have no truck with the ruling Janata Dal in the first and not to join but provide only an outside support to the Lok Dal Government of Om Prakash Chautala in the latter.

As of now there is no proposal at all from the Janata Dal to join the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) under whose banner the BJP and allies are to contest and the state BJP in Karnataka wants to go with Lok Shakti only and not with Chief Minister J H Patel or his party, BJP spokesman M Venkaiah Naidu affirmed on Tuesday.

He said Lok Shakti leader and Union Commerce Minister Ramakrishna Hegde put forward a proposal to BJP President Kushabhau Thakre on Monday that it would be better if the Janata Dal of Karnataka was also included in the electoral alliance. "We would certainly consider the proposal," Naidu said, but added the rider that the opposition of the state BJP would also be kept in view.

Thakre is believed to have advised Hegde to better rope in his supporters in the Janata Dal to join his Lok Shakti party instead of creating any impasse at the NDA's coordination committee meeting slated for Saturday to iron out any problems about the electoral alliances.

Naidu sought to elaborate it by pointing out that the fact is that as of now neither the Lok Shakti nor the Samta Party, who are the BJP's allies, have merged into the Janata Dal and hence the BJP would prefer to go with its old allies instead of entertaining any new combinations. As regards Janata Dal leaders in Bihar like former Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, the BJP sources said the party was already trying to woo him to become an alternative to Laloo Prasad Yadav in the state and hence there would be no problem accommodating him, more so when the Bihar BJP has no objections.

In Haryana, the state BJP leaders were quite opposed to even supporting the Chautala government as their contention was that the party had withdrawn support to the Bansi Lal Government only to force fresh elections and it would look like power hungry if it now gives support or joins the new government.

"Keeping in view the state BJP's opionion, we would not join the Haryana Government but support it from outside," Naidu said, adding that the decision would be "reviewed after the Lok Sabha elections." The BJP wants to take advantage of Chautala being a Jat to use his influence on the Jat voters in several northern states like Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. END.