Sharad offers to quit for `party sake’

NEW DELHI, NOV 25: With Communications Minister Ram Vilas Paswan showing no signs of relenting from his stand of going on his own, a belea...

NEW DELHI, NOV 25: With Communications Minister Ram Vilas Paswan showing no signs of relenting from his stand of going on his own, a beleaguered JD(U) president Sharad Yadav today offered to step down from his post “for the sake of party unity”.

His statement comes a day before the party’s national executive meeting and three days before the “Janshakti rally” being organised by Paswan to announce his formal parting of ways with the JD(U). It is seen as a last-ditch effort to assuage the Communications Minister.

In a bid to stall a split in the party, Yadav is likely to meet former Union minister Ramakrishna Hegde who, observers feel, holds the key to the JD(U)’s future. The Lok Shakti leader enjoys the backing of the two party MPs from Karnataka — Shashi Kumar and Ramesh Jigjinagi. The JD(U) has 10 members in the Lok Sabha.

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However, Yadav’s offer comes with a rider — that the organisational elections in any case were due to be held in three months and hence there was no need to precipitate things at this juncture. He simultaneously blasted Paswan for running a parallel organisation all these years and for making no real effort to participate in party activities.

“The doors for a patch-up are always open. There are going to be organisational elections. I am ready to make any compromise. I also wish that somebody else should take the burden of party president’s post,” Yadav told reporters this afternoon.

The JD(U) chief went all-out to win over Hedge. Helping him out in his effort are M. Raghupathy and Jeevaraj Alva, the two Hegde loyalists in the party’s central team.

If Hedge throws his weight behind Paswan, the latter will have the necessary numbers to split the JD(U) Parliamentary Party without inviting punitive measures under the anti-defection law.

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Paswan currently enjoys the backing of two Lok Sabha MPs — his younger brother Ram Chandra Paswan and former Union minister Jai Narayan Prasad Nishad. Paswan met Hedge last night and again this morning to seek his support. During the course of the two meetings, the Communications Minister is learnt to have observed that he would not break away from the party if Yadav gives up the president’s post in favour of the Karnataka leader.

All eyes are on the outcome of the JD(U) national executive meeting to be held on Sunday. Asked if it would recommend disciplinary action against Paswan, Yadav responded by saying that it all depended upon its (the executive’s) members.

“I’ve never expelled anybody from the party. People left the party on their own,” he said, adding that he had been silent even on the request made by party presidents from more than 10 states to expel Paswan for his anti-party activities.