NEW DELHI, July 5: The Janata Dal formally split here on Saturday with Bihar chief minister and JD supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav announcing the formation of a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) at a day-long convention of his supporters called at new Bihar Bhavan in the Capital.

The RJD will, however, extend support to the Gujral government and the organisers threw enough hints to suggest that the nascent party would remain part of the United Front.

The convention, attended by majority of Bihar JD MPs and three central ministers, including coal minister Kanti Singh, non-conventional energy minister Jai Narain Nishad and food minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, passed a resolution approving the formation of the new party.

Continuing his belligerent posture, Laloo Yadav announced in the course of his speech at the convention that he would go on a country-wide tour to mobilise public opinion in favour of his party which "stood for upliftment of minorities, dalits and backwards".

Laloo charged that there was a big conspiracy by his detractors to malign him but he was determined to fight it out and come out unscathed. He openly charged former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, Sharad Yadav and railway minister Ram Vilas Paswan of "betraying the trust of the people". He said these leaders were trying to hijack the party even though they had no mass base.

While Laloo was busy holding the convention in Delhi, his opponents in Patna demanded that the chief minister immediately convene a session of the Assembly to prove his majority on the floor of the House, according to reports reaching here.

There were indications, however, that Laloo still commanded a majority in the Assembly with sizeable sections of non-BJP MLAs backing him. His supporters here claimed that an overwhelming majority of the party MLAs were with Laloo Yadav.

With a split in the organisation, the position of the Janata Dal as the dominant party received a severe setback. Despite JD presidential candidate and Laloo's bete noire Sharad Yadav's protests to the contrary, senior party leaders admitted that the split had created a piquant situation for prime minister Gujral.

The question already being raised in political circles was: how long will Gujral last as prime minister with the truncated party?

The oblique hint was towards the Congress party which appeared to be waiting in the wings to take over and was only in search of an opportune moment.

Congress vice-president Jitendra Prasada, however, denied on Saturday that there was any move to upstage the Gujral government. Asked for his comment on the JD split, Congress president Sitaram Kesri discreetly said it was the internal affair of the Janata Dal and his party had nothing to comment on that. Kesri had maintained the same stance towards the JD imbroglio all these days.

Prime minister Gujral also refused to comment on the developments while asked to react at a book release function in the Capital later in the day.It was, indeed, left to the BJP to mount a frontal attack on Laloo Yadav. The party demanded immediate dismissal of the Laloo Yadav government in Bihar as the chief minister had forfeited the right to govern after the fodder scam came to light involving him directly.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.