NEW DELHI: Ramakrishna Hegdes vituperative outbursts against the election of V.P.Singh as the Janata Dal president last week angered party leaders who accused him of working to serve the Congress interests

Two statements were issued by Janata Dal leaders in response to Hegdes letter. One signed by seven MPs and the other by Surendra Mohan party ideologue and a former MP. In both Hegde was portrayed as though he was a Congress agent in the Janata Dal.

Yet another thrust of the Statements was that Hegde was anti militant and did not want a strong platform to be built up against the Congress that cold also combat the fissiparous forces of communalism Surendra Mohan said.

In the statement of MPs which was released with signature of Devendra Prasad Yadav Janata Dal chief whip in the Lok Sabha it was said that Hedge was working in collusion with Chandra shekhar. Without naming the former Prime Minister the statement said that Hegdes efforts to weaken the Janata dal with the help of certain defected leaders who stabbed the party Three years ago to join hands with the Congress had been thwarted The leader who had defected now wanted to return to the JD with the aim of dissolving it to serve the Congress interests.

Hegde was not happy with the election of V.P.Singh as the JD president as that might resuscitate the party to provide the nucleus of a broad-based unity of all populous democratic and leftist forces to mount a formidable challenge against the Congress. Consistent with that position Hegde had desisted from criticizing the anti-people economic policies of the Congress government. He wanted to provoke V.P.Singh into rejecting the executive’s decision to help the Congress according to Mohan. Hegde was upset because V.P.Singh had announced to project H.D. Deve Gowda as chief ministerial candidate of the Janata Dal in the next Assembly elections to the Karnataka Assembly the Janata Dal MPs said. The MPs included Chhedi Paswan S.P. Yadav Rajesh Kumar Mumtaz Ansari Sukhdev Paswan Chun Prasad Yadav besides Devendra Prasad Yadav.

They challenged Hegdes contention that the national executive was bulldozed to pass a resolution claiming V-P.Singh as the president by muscle power of Laloo Prasad Yadav. Is Bommai a muscle man of Laloo Yadav asked the MPs reminding Hegde that Bommai himself moved the resolution announcing his resignation and proposed V. P. Singhs name as his replacement.

Article extracted from this publication >> February 25, 1994