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`JD(S) will not accept Bommai formula'

By Our Staff Correspondent

MANGALORE DEC. 23. The Janata Dal (S) will not merge with the Akhila Bharata Janata Dal (ABJD) as proposed in the "Bommai formula", the General Secretary of the State unit of the JD(S), Ravishankar Shetty, has said.

Addressing a press conference here today, he said the JD(S) President, H.D. Deve Gowda, had not accepted the formula as it limited the activities of the new party to the State, and gave "undue advantage" to a few persons, leaving out national-level leaders from its fold, including Mulayam Singh Yadav, Laloo Prasad Yadav, Chautala, and Sharad Yadav, who were part of the erstwhile JD. Without these leaders, the new party would serve no purpose, he added.

Mr. Shetty said Mr. Bommai had not informed Mr. Deve Gowda and Ramakrishna Hegde about the formation of the new party, and had lost their goodwill and confidence. The JD(S) had not given Mr. Bommai the right to speak on behalf of Mr. Deve Gowda. However, Mr. Gowda had said he would have accepted any leader as the president of the new party if the Bommai formula had included estranged JD leaders, he added.

He said Mr. Gowda put forward the idea of the merger of the JD(S) and the JD(U) after the Kanakapura elections, and the merger process was being taken forward till Mr. Bommai took upon himself the role of "saviour".

Mr. Gowda was, even today, ready for a "healthy" merger of the JD(S) and JD(U) provided the latter withdrew from the NDA-led Government at the Centre and ended its association with the BJP. Mr. Gowda wanted Sharad Yadav to resign from the Union ministry.

Dismissing the claims of the former Law Minister, M.C. Nanaiah, on the importance of the new party, Mr. Shetty said that if the JD(S) was not merging with the new party, and the JD(U) continued to stay in the NDA, it would appear that the ABJD was formed to accommodate the so-called "neutral" leaders of the erstwhile JD — Mr. M.C. Nanaiah, the MLA, Jayaprakash Hegde, the former MLC, B.A. Mohideen, and the former Speaker, Ramesh Kumar. He said that if at all a national party was to be floated, it could not be limited to Karnataka but should encompass like-minded leaders from various parts of the country, he added.

Describing the Bommai formula as a farce, Mr. Shetty said Mr. Bommai was toeing Mr. Ramakrishna Hegde's line and wanted to "create confusion" among the workers of the JD(S) by floating a new party and stating that the JD(S) no longer existed. He alleged that Mr. Bommai was responsible for the ouster of Mr. Ramakrishna Hegde from the party.

Asked if any member of the JD(S) had left the party to join the ABJD, Mr. Shetty said except Ivan D'Souza and some of his supporters, no one had done so.

There were no JD(S) office-bearers in Udupi District, and soon Mr. Siddaramaiah was to appoint Mahim Hegde as president of the Udupi unit of the party.

Any JD(S) member who announced his affiliation with the ABJD in Udupi was persona non grata for the party, he added.

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