Fernandes rebuffed by former Janata allies

Efforts to reunite the erstwhile constituents of the now defunct Janata Dal, part of the federal coalition government, have suffered a setback with the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) stating they have no plans to merge with any other party.

According to a political aide of the INLD president and Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, while they are not opposed to the merger in principle they would prefer a broad political understanding rather than a merger of various political parties into one unit.

Speculation on merger moves began after senior leaders of the Janata Dal (United), the Samata Party and the INLD met at the residence of the Samata Party chief and the federal Defence Minister George Fernandes on Wednesday.

INLD sources, however, put all speculation to rest by saying that while the merger proposal was discussed, most of the talks were confined to the upcoming state assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Delhi.

"We have considerable interest in Rajasthan were we feel we favourably placed to play a key role in the next government's formation. We are also planning to put up some of our candidates for the Delhi state assembly polls. Since the JD (U) and the Samata Party also intend to contest polls in Rajasthan, there was a general consensus that together we can do much better," the INLD sources said.

All these three parties are not particularly happy with the short shrift they have got from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that heads the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) over the BJP's announcement not to have tie-up with any party in all these four states. They admit that the NDA essentially is an understanding at the centre and does not automatically extend to states.

This is the third serious move to reunite various splinter groups of the erstwhile Janata Dal. The closest they came was in Bihar when during the 1999 general elections, the Samata Party agreed to contest under the JD (U) symbol. However, within months, the Samata Party faced with internal bickering opted out of the merger move.

While the JD (U) and the Samata Party have been in touch for sometime due to their understanding that divided they stand no chance to take on the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar, the initiative to bring them together was taken by Chautala.