BANGALORE: Janata Dal president, S R Bommai, has urged party workers to prepare themselves for elections saying ‘the Congress (I) backed Chandra Shekhar federal government would fall soon’.
Addressing the party workers at a meeting here Nov 24, Bommai made a scathing attack on Chandra Shekhar for seeking Rajiv Gandhi’s support to form the government and said it was a pity that Chandra Shekhar who undertook a marathon walk from Kashmir to Kanyakumari to mobilise public opinion against the Congress (I) should join hands with Gandhi to attain power.
The Janata Dal leader, Ramakrishna Hegde, broke his long silence on the developments in recent months and said he was at a loss as to what to say, whether to express his unhappiness or to blame those who had split the party.
Stating that V P Singh could have continued in power, Hedge said the sacrifice he had made was a strong point for the party in facing the next elections. He, however, admitted that the V P Singh government had committed some mistakes and said it was better to realize this so that the mistakes would not be repeated.
Hegde said the anxiety to implement all the poll promises at a stretch instead of tackling certain other problems of the common man such as rising prices and keeping silent on the reconstitution of certain boards and corporations, and ignoring party workers were some of the mistakes of the V P Singh government, The Janata Dal on Nov 26 accused the Congress (I) and the Janata Dal of having a hand in Sunday’s bomb blast near the rostrum at Sitamarhi.
Dal spokesman Jaipal Reddy told reporters that unnerved by the response of the people, the Congress (I) and JD (S) are reacting in a typical style. The bomb blast in Sitamarhi just after the meeting is an indication of the reaction of the Congress (I) JD(S) combine.
Janata Dal (S) spokesman Malviya denied that his party had any hand in the explosion.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 7, 1990
