The tug-of-war between the supporters of the two socialist stalwarts, although still in a nascent stage, could assume a serious dimension in the days to come, especially in view of the forthcoming assembly elections in Bihar. At stake is the crucial issue of ticket-distribution.

``Whoever is the party president will have a decisive say in the distribution of tickets to the aspirants,'' remarked a JD (U) MP from the state.

Yadav's supporters, who include traditional loyalists such as Sitamarhi MP Nawal Kishore Rai, would like the status-quo to be maintained, at least till the assembly elections. ``The top three posts in the party, which include that of the party president and the chiefs of the parliamentary party and the parliamentaryboard are currently held respectively by Yadav, Fernandes and Ram Vilas Paswan. This set-up should not be disturbed,'' a senior JD (U) leader pointed out.

Where does that leave former commerce minister Ramakrishna Hegde? It is said that when Yadav called on Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee a few days ago, he came up with the proposal that the Lok Shakti leader be suitably accommodated within the NDA or the Government.

A fallout of the spat among the JD (U) leaders has been an almost certain postponement of the proposed merger between the Samata Party, the Janata Dal and the Lok Shakti. ``The merger, which was tentatively scheduled for October 30, has in all likelihood been deferred as Hegde has still not been mollified,'' a JD (U) leader said.

Parliamentary leader George Fernandes, in the meanwhile, today named former Union Minister Devendra Prasad Yadav as the party's deputy leader in the Lok Sabha and Gopalgunj MP Raghunath Jha as the party's chief whip. Other officebearers include Mahendra Baitha(general secretary), Arun Kumar (secretary), Shashi Kumar (treasurer) and Brahmanand Mandal (deputy chief whip).