Vajpayee rejects Nitish resignation

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JAN. 6. The Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, tonight rejected the resignation of the Union Agriculture Minister, Mr. Nitish Kumar, from the Cabinet. The resignation was forwarded this evening to the Prime Minister by the Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes. Mr. Fernandes was compelled to do so as the stand-off between the Samata Party leader, Mr. Nitish Kumar, and the rebels continued.

Unwilling to concede to any ground to his detractors, Mr. Nitish Kumar forced the issue and insisted that Mr. Fernandes forward the resignation letter to Mr. Vajpayee. Mr. Fernandes said he did so ``most reluctantly'' after having failed to persuade Mr. Kumar to withdraw it.

The Prime Minister is understood to have called up the Agriculture Minister to communicate his decision. Mr. Kumar had put in his papers on Wednesday after six party MPs launched a broadside against him on January 3 for initiating a merger move with the Janata Dal (United) and regarding other party issues.

Mr. Nitish Kumar, while reposing trust in the Samata Party parliamentary party leader, Mr. Fernandes, launched another attack on the six MPs who elected the Gopalganj MP, Mr. Raghunath Jha, as their State unit chief on Friday at a parallel meet.

``These six MPs cannot dictate terms to the party,'' Mr. Kumar said, responding to their stand on the merger, which, he said, the party's national council accepted in principle through a resolution last January. He justified his resignation on the ground that since half of the 12 party MPs criticised him personally, he did not want to represent the outfit in the Government. Barely 48 hours before the party's national council meet, scheduled to start at Mysore to elect a new party chief, the leadership was on a fire-fighting mission trying to find a common ground between Mr. Kumar and the six dissenters.

The six dissenting MPs too started assembling in Delhi and it is understood that Mr. Fernandes was making another attempt to get them around. Both camps have reposed complete faith in Mr. Fernandes' ability to administer ``justice''.

Meanwhile, the 12 MPs of Janata Dal (Samata), as the party is known in Lok Sabha, today merged with the Samata Party. The merger decision was taken unanimously at a meeting of the party on December 18, where all the MPs were present, according to the Samata spokesperson here. The merger was a technicality since the JD (Samata) had split from the Janata Dal (United) to form a separate entity in Parliament and was accorded such a status during July last year by the Speaker.

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