Fernandes, Nitish heal rift

The looming crisis in the Samata Party that was threatening to split the party vertically appeared to have blown over with the suspension of three party lawmakers in Bihar from the primary membership of the party.

Samata Party chief and Federal Defence Minister George Fernandes yesterday signed orders suspending Ganesh Paswan, Bhai Virender and P.K. Sinha on the eve of his departure for a week-long tour of China starting yesterday.

While the party appeared headed for a certain split, last minute parleys lasting three days, bore fruit as the patch-up formula was finally worked out under which a Central Disciplinary Action Committee was constituted under chairmanship of Prabhudayal Singh.

The five-member committee subsequently recommended suspension of the three leaders, leaving Fernandes with no option but to show the door to his known supporters, who had shown courage of taking cudgels on his behalf with Railways Minister Nitish Kumar, who heads a powerful faction in the party, a key constituent of the federal National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

Although Fernandes' decision to bow before Nitish faction may have saved a certain split in the party, his followers are bound to feel uneasy about his action, considering it is the second time he has sacrificed his close associates in his bid to keep the fragile party intact.

Earlier last year, his close ally and party general secretary Shambhu Srivastava was forced to resign when he, at the behest of Fernandes, had demanded resignation of the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi following communal riots in the state.

However, faced with strong protests by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Fernandes made a u-turn denying that Srivastava's was the official stand of the party, prompting the latter to resign. It was only recently that Srivastava was reinstated as the party general secretary and spokesperson.

Suspension of three Bihar dissidents, who are accused of taking internal conflict of the party to the Election Commission of India, has fulfilled the condition put forth by Nitish faction for ending the crisis.

Party sources, however, suggested that suspension of three Bihar lawmakers may at the best reflect a truce that has been worked out and may not end the crisis permanently considering deep division and distrust that the two factions, headed respectively by Fernandes and Nitish, have developed over the past one year.

The two leaders had held their preliminary meeting at an undisclosed place on Wednesday night, which was followed with several rounds of talks on Thursday and Friday.