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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, June 12: Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda has become the stumbling block in efforts by some Janata Dal leaders to find a compromise candidate for the post of party president.
Party leaders who have been trying to persuade the Gowda-Sharad Yadav and Laloo Prasad Yadav factions to agree to someone like Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Madhu Dandavate heading the party did not sound optimistic about the former prime minister giving in easily.
“On the other hand, Laloo Yadav is prepared to make way for a third candidate. He realises that if there is contest, he could lose. But he will withdraw only if Sharad Yadav also does,” said one of them.
While Gowda has not shown any interest in getting Sharad Yadav to make way for a compromise candidate, the latter himself is in no mood to relent given his good chances of victory. In the circumstances, a contest seems to be inevitable.
Sources close to Gowda feel that he is in a mood to precipitate matters, even at the cost of a split in the party and the fall of the Gujral government. “He has nothing to lose, even if he may not gain anything. With Karnataka more or less under his control, he will continue to be relevant,” according to one leader.
Still nursing hopes of staging a comeback, Gowda is said to be toying with the idea of forcing Laloo Yadav to split the party and take over whatever remains of it.
He believes that as a man wronged, he enjoys sufficient sympathy across the country which he could encash at the time of a mid-term election.
It may be recalled that after Congress president Sitaram Kesri withdrew support to his government, Gowda had considered recommending dissolution of the Lok Sabha and the holding of fresh elections in the hope of riding the crest of a sympathy wave. But this was stymied not only by the United Front constituents but also by his own party.
His moves, he hopes, will have the tacit support of CPI (M) General Secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet, who was virtually calling the shots in the United Front when Gowda was prime minister. Surjeet does not enjoy the same clout with Gujral.
Indicative of his mood was his remark in Bangalore today that his political career had not ended and anyone thinking so was only deriving temporary pleasure.
