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RJD upbeat, NDA a house divided

By K. Balchand

PATNA, APRIL 28. An upbeat Rashtriya Janata Dal-led alliance is going all out to round off the third and final round of polling for 12 Lok Sabha seats in the eastern region of Bihar on May 5 buoyed by reports that it had wrested the initiative in the first two phases of elections. On the other hand, the exit polls have apparently brought the differences within the National Democratic Alliance to the fore and pushed it to the defensive making its task all the more difficult in retaining 11 seats, including those of two Union Cabinet Ministers, in the final phase of polling.

The Congress, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Nationalist Congress Party of Sharad Pawar, are contesting one seat each while the Lok Janshakti Party of Ram Vilas Paswan is in the fray in four constituencies and the RJD in five.

The RJD chief, Laloo Prasad Yadav, has taken the battle into the opposite camp maintaining that the NDA would be voted out of power and that the next government would be formed under the leadership of the Congress President, Sonia Gandhi. Mr. Paswan's refrain is the same that the NDA would be routed in the elections.

Striving to keep his Muslim-Yadav vote bank, which dominates the better part of the region, Mr. Yadav is taking the opportunity of taking pot-shots at the Samajwadi Party chief and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav, charging that he had played into the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party and had deliberately put up Yadav and Muslim candidates to harm the case of the secular forces. He also accused him of being involved in the Sukhoi fighter aircraft purchase deal.

Mr. Yadav is cashing in on the exit polls to send a clear message to the Muslims and the Yadavs to remain united and not be misled by "forces which were hand-in-glove with the BJP." By attacking the U.P. Chief Minister, the RJD chief is also preparing for the post-electoral showdown with him.

Out to settle a score with the Samajwadi Party leader, the RJD chief will be devoting a day in U.P. before the May 5 elections and has threatened to camp for the third phase of elections there on May 10. The Congress leaders are feverishly pleading with him to campaign for their candidates there.

Mr. Yadav's objective is also to prevent the BJP and the Janata Dal (U) from cutting into his vote bank. The BJP and the JD (U) have put up candidates belonging to the Muslim and Yadav communities. The Exit polls may well have taken the wind out of their strategy.

While the RJD chief takes on the JD (U) leader and Union Food and Civil Supplies Minister, Sharad Yadav, in Madhepura, the BJP candidate and Union Textile Minister, Shahnwaz Hussain, is locked in a keen tussle with the RJD nominee and Building Construction Minister, Md. Taslimuddin.

The JD(U) candidate and Union Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Digvijay Singh, is in a tight spot in Banka against his RJD rival.

The RJD leaders are driving home the point that the BJP's demand for countermanding the elections to Chapra constituency was indicative of the party's desperate situation in the state in general.

Things are not going smoothly for the BJP with differences of opinion cropping up in its ally, the JD (U). The Railway Minister, Nitish Kumar, differs with his party chief and Defence Minister, George Fernandes, on the issue of imposition of President's rule in Bihar. He feels that the party chief had made a tactical mistake by harping that Central rule would be imposed if the NDA was returned to power.

In Mr. Kumar's assessment, Mr. Fernandes' statement had helped Mr. Yadav in garnering the sympathy factor. Mr. Fernandes has continued to speak in the same refrain even though the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K.Advani, had ruled out that possibility.

The BJP and the JD (U) have everything to lose and nothing to gain in the final round of clash in Bihar. Whereas the RJD and its allies have everything to lap up without yielding any ground.

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