PURI: Former prime minister V P Singh demanded that 60% of the senior posts in the Janata Dal be reserved for those belonging to the socially deprived sections and asked the party national executive to consider creation of a politburo to lead them.
Singh’s remarks on the reservation of party posts and need for structural changes in the Dal came in the course of his speech at the first meeting of the recently constituted 70-member Janata Dal national executive on the eve of the national convention beginning on Saturday.
The remarks assume significance in wake of the reported power struggle within the party for top organizational posts like the secretary general and parliamentary board chairman lying vacant in the post November-split set up.
Prominent absentees at the executive meeting included Arun Nehru Arif Mohammad Khan and Satyapal Malik who belonged to the erstwhile Jan Morcha party of V P Singh now a constituent of the Janata Dal.
Party spokesman Jaipal Reddy told newsmen that Nehru’s absence was due to some personal preoccupations but did not offer any comment on the absence of the other two.
Former ministers Ajit Singh George Fernandes and Ram Vilas Paswan arrived at this seaside temple city in the eastern Indian state of Orissa in the evening after the political affairs committee met in the morning.
V P Singh reminded the party’s national executive of the commitment made by Janata Dal to allot 60% of its tickets to persons who represented the submerged social segments.
The weaker sections minorities and women who were the submerged weaker sections of the society constituted the overwhelming majority of the population and should be accommodated to the tune of 60% he added.
Meanwhile party president S R Bommai welcoming the members of the new executive referred to the current political crisis in the country and asked them to ponder over the desirability of a fresh Lok Sabha election.
Also speaking on the occasion Orissa chief minister and party veteran Biju Patnaik said the only way out of the current impasse was fresh and immediate polls to Lok Sabha.
He lambasted the Chandra Shekhar government for ‘committing atrocities’ on the constitution of India by dismissing state governments in Assam and Tamil Nadu because it was the weakest government the country had ever seen.
He said the government was vulnerable to blackmail of Congress (I) which was ruling the roost without any responsibility he said and added that this was a sad phenomenon.
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