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AICC member joins JD(U)

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 17. The Agricultural Marketing Cooperative NAFED Chairman, Ajit Singh, today joined the Janata Dal (United) after resigning from the Congress, even as the JD(U) dissident MP, Raghunath Jha, joined the Rashtriya Janata Dal today. Mr. Singh is a member of the All-India Congress Committee.

Mr. Singh joined the JD(U) here in the presence of the party's parliamentary board chairman and Union Food Minister, Sharad Yadav, and the Union Railway Minister, Nitish Kumar.

Mr. Singh told newspersons that he had joined the JD(U) as he had faith in the leadership of Mr. Yadav and Mr. Kumar and felt that they alone could lift Bihar to "a national level."

"There is no development in Bihar," he said adding that only the JD(U) could ensure overall development of the State.

Mr. Singh is the son of the late Tapeshwar Singh, former Congress MP and a known leader in the cooperative movement. He is likely to be pitted against the RJD's Kanti Singh in Bikramganj in Bihar. The Director of the National Consumer Cooperative Federation, Birendra Singh, also joined the JD(U).

Asked about Mr. Jha's exit, Mr. Kumar said: "This should have happened long ago. He was not for the merger of the Samata Party with JD (U). His opposition showed that he had plans to leave the party." On the issue of seat adjustment with the BJP, Mr. Yadav said the party president, George Fernandes, would meet the BJP president, Venkaiah Naidu, soon and "sort out the issue." However, the JD(U) would contest as many seats as it did in the last elections in Bihar, he added. The seat adjustment for seats outside Bihar, including Jharkhand, would be worked out.

He said there were no more talks with the Lok Janshakti Party Chief, Ram Vilas Paswan, for an alliance. The JD(U) would contest as part of the NDA alliance with a common minimum programme without the Ayodhya issue. "We have ideological difference, but we will work on a CMP."

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