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JDU gets a new president, set to move out of BJP shadow

	April 17, 2006

Janata Dal (United) Parliamentary Board chairman Sharad Yadav has been elected president of the party defeating George Fernandes by a big margin in a bitterly fought election. Yadav was declared elected as party president in Patna on Tuesday, April 11, with 413 votes as against 25 polled by Fernandes. As many as 123 registered voters did not exercise their franchise in the controversy-marred election while ten votes were declared invalid.



Upset at the election result, George Fernandes stayed away from the general body meeting of the party held in Patna on Wednesday, April 12. Despite the best efforts of Sharad Yadav and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Fernandes refused to attend the meeting and flew off to Delhi in the afternoon. Feeling betrayed by his one time close aide, Nitish Kumar, who reportedly backed Sharad Yadav, the veteran Socialist leader made only a cryptic remark before boarding the Delhi flight. “You cannot do Delhi’s politics from Bihar Assembly,” he said while talking to media persons. Fernandes also later wrote to the Election Commission complaining about what he called “irregularities” in the party presidential election.



Though the JDU has announced that it will continue as a constituent of the National Democratic Alliance, observers say that the JDU has finally undergone a generational change in leadership in much the same way as its senior NDA partner, the BJP. This change may lead to redefining of the JDU’s relationship with the BJP as the new leadership is wary of being seen as too close to the saffron party, that is tracing its way back to its hardcore Hindutva ideology.



Though this attempt at distancing from the BJP had begun well before the Bihar elections, there will be a renewed effort to project the distinct secular identity and ideology of the JD(U) under its new president, party sources said, with an eye on future political realignments in case a “Third Front” emerges.



However, this shift will be gradual. For the time being, the JD(U) will continue its partnership with the BJP with which it runs coalition governments in Bihar and Jharkhand.



Meanwhile, efforts are on to placate Fernandes, said to be upset by the manner in which he has been “ousted” from the party president’s post. Though marginalised, he is still capable of creating problems within the party with his group of supporters. According to sources, the new leadership has no problem with his continuing as the NDA convener.





The roadmap to Sharad Yadav’s election



There are reports that a strong section within the JDU had been unhappy with the alliance with the BJP ever since the defeat of the NDA in the May 2004 Lok Sabha elections. This has been aggravated by the recent BJP decision to return to the Hindutva line. At JDU national executive meetings, several leaders belonging to this section of the party repeatedly emphasised the party’s socialist and secular roots and expressed misgivings about getting too close to the BJP.



But George Fernandes in his dual role as JDU chief and NDA convener remained very close to the BJP leadership. Often, he was the only non-BJP representative at socalled NDA meetings and NDA delegations to Rashtrapati Bhavan. Fernandes’ deep antipathy towards the Congress, particularly Sonia Gandhi, made him join hands with the BJP without always getting the endorsement of his own party.



Sharad Yadav, on the other hand, had gone out of his way in the recent past, to establish the JDU’s independent approach to various issues. For instance, he played a key role in securing support from non-BJP constituents of the NDA for the Bill to extend reservations to private unaided educational institutions. He refused to go along with the BJP’s line of opposing the Bill on the ground that minority educational institutions were exempt.



Since the JDU-BJP victory in the Bihar Assembly elections, Sharad Yadav had slowly become more assertive in Delhi while Nitish Kumar remained busy with transforming Bihar. Sharad Yadav and his close associates made no secret of their differences with the BJP on ideological issues, and their unhappiness with Fernandes for blurring the party’s identity.



“You can rest assured that as JDU chief, Sharadji will not be working out of the BJP headquarters or address press conferences at Advani’s residence or make trips to Nagpur to broker peace between the BJP and RSS,” a JDU leader sarcastically said.



While there is no immediate plans to leave the NDA, Sharad Yadav’s elevation will also give a fillip to ongoing efforts to “reunite the Janata parivar,” source said. To begin with, the JDU and JD(S) might get closer.



Yadav’s victory is likely to impact on the “realignment of forces” taking place within the UPA and the emergence of a nascent Third front.



“It is too early to predict the future, but if the JD(U), JD(S) and JMM and LJP join hands, we can form a viable alternative in Bihar, Jharkhand and Karnataka, to both the Congress and the BJP”, a party insider said.



Reports say that many players outside the JD(U) also wanted to remote control the outcome of the party presidential election. These included the BJP, the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party and Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal. Even the Congress had an agenda, but it wanted Fernandes, the fountainhead of anti-Congressism in recent times, to meet his Waterloo at Sharad Yadav’s hands.



The implications of Fernandes getting trounced by a margin seven times his years in politics are evident from the fact that neither L.K. Advani nor Mulayam nor Lalu are comfortable with the new JD(U) line-up; a Yadav party chief backed by Nitish Kumar, Bihar’s Kurmi Chief Minister.



The BJP’s anxiety that Fernandes retain his position in the party hierarchy had more to do with its national politics. Considered close to Advani, the veteran socialist known for his pathological dislike of the Nehru-Gandhi family, had been a veritable BJP supporter in the JD(U). Through him, the saffron party had been navigated as key NDA partner to its political advantage vis-a-vis the Congress.



For the same reason, the SP, given Mulayam’s comfortable equation with Fernandes, had wanted the fiery trade unionist of yore to win to help accomplish the two-pronged objective of keeping the heat on Sonia Gandhi and lending a shoulder to its none-too-furtive efforts of setting up a new political front.



As for Lalu, the JD(U)’s Kurmi-Yadav combination was not a happy augury, given its vast potential to consolidate Nitish’s rule with a touch of good governance.



The JDU’s new leadership may not immediately sever ties with the NDA. But the party certainly looks better suited - than Fernandes’ saffron appendage version - to lay the kernel of a genuinely anti-Congress, and anti-BJP third front.





Fernandes may revive Samata Party



There are indication that Fernandes may revive his original Samata Party which had merged with the JD(U). The Samata Party had retained its identity even after the merger of a large section with the JDU in 2003. Samata Party president P.K. Sinhasaid in Patna on April 14 that he would be going to Delhi to discuss the issue with Fernandes.