BANGALORE, June 8: In a swift move, the Karnataka Janata Dal (JD) is orchestrating a patch-up bid between the various factions at home, as they hope to join effort to persuade the Gowda-backed Sharad Yadav to accept a cabinet berth and withdraw from the presidential contest, to avert the impending crisis within the party at the Centre.

Even as pressure is said to be mounting on Prime Minister I K Gujral, to induct Sharad Yadav in the Union Cabinet, the State Janata Dal has clearly decided to take the initiative by first setting its own house in order. By this, it obviously hopes to achieve greater manoeuvrability in forcing the two feuding Yadavs from Bihar to a mutual compromise.

After hectic parleys over the last many days, both Chief Minister J H Patel and State President B L Shankar are said to have succeeded in persuading the various sections of the State unit to bury the hatchet in the interests of the survival of the party.

According to sources, a high-level meeting called by Patel about three days ago was attended by, among others, senior ministers representing all the factions, such as M P Prakash, R V Deshpande and Ramesh Jigajinagi (known to be Ramakrishna Hegde sympathisers), K N Nage Gowda and C Byre Gowda (Deve Gowda's supporters), H C Mahadevappa and P Kodandaramaiah, the MP who is close to Union Minister R L Jalappa, besides State party president and Chickmagalur MP B L Shankar, who was also Deve Gowda's political aide when he was both chief minister and prime minister.

The meeting apparently decided that the Karnataka unit would not align itself either way, in the factional politics at the Centre, thus apparently hoping to force a compromise between the two Yadavs whose battle for presidentship is anyway expected to put their own Bihar state unit in jeopardy.

Clearly the initiative seems to have paid off. At a meeting called by H D Revanna, Deve Gowda's son and member of the Patel ministry at C Byre Gowda's residence on Friday morning, there was broad consensus that any move to play partisan politics at this stage, by way of support to Sharad Yadav, might be at the cost of the very survival of the party. A majority are said to have emphasised the need to extend support to J H Patel in his unity moves within the State.

The meeting was attended by senior Vokkaliga ministers K N Nage Gowda, Govinde Gowda and Bache Gowda, besides the host minister Byre Gowda.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.