The Hindu : Samata's appeal to Nitish Kumar

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 17, 2003

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Samata's appeal to Nitish Kumar

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 16. The crisis in the Samata Party today moved towards resolution with the party MP, Prabhunath Singh, whose comments in the organisational meet had first triggered it, calling on Nitish Kumar, and stating later that the Railway Minister was expected to resume work.

After a two-hour meeting this evening with Mr. Kumar, the Samata MP, Mr. Singh, told correspondents that all the people in the party desired that Mr. Kumar continued working as the Minister. He described the development as a "clash of sentiments'' which was sorted out.

The Samata Bihar unit chief, Bashisht Narian Singh, a confidant of Mr. Kumar, who facilitated the meeting, later told The Hindu that Mr. Singh had raised a point of order which had turned emotive.

"All of us, George Fernandes, Prabhunath Singh, Arun Kumar and I have urged him to continue. The entire party has appealed to Mr. Kumar, and the party is above all'' he said, adding that the Railway Minister was expected to respond positively.

Mr. Kumar, who has maintained that he would not resume his work as Railway Minister, held separate meetings with the party chief and Defence Minister, George Fernandes, and the two MPs, Prabhunath Singh and Arun Kumar.

Conciliatory efforts began early this morning, with Mr. Fernandes calling on the Railway Minister, to persuade him not to insist on the resignation which he had submitted on Monday. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, had rejected it.

Later, Mr. Fernandes told correspondents that he was hopeful the problem would be resolved by tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the Congress today criticised the resignation and said the NDA Government was "devoid of any commitment, ideology or political philosophy. It is sheer expediency and greed of power which has got these political parties together''.

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