BHUBANESHWAR, DEC 2: The announcement made by former prime minister H D Deve Gowda at the Congress hatao rallies held by the party at Balasore and Angul, that the party would contest all the 21 Lok Sabha seats in Orissa in the next elections along with the two Left parties, has given rise to resentment among a section of the Janta Dal men advocating an understanding with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The secretary of the Janata Dal Legislature Party (JDLP) and spokesman of the Dal's Western Orissa lobby Prasanna Acharya, has taken strong exception to such a statement by Gowda. Talking to The Indian Express on Monday, Acharya said that the former prime minister should have consulted the state unit of the party before making such a `unilateral' statement. The former minister alleged that Gowda was not aware of the political situation in the state.

Addressing the rallies, Gowda had announced that the Janata Dal would contest all the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state along with the party's allies, CPI and CPM. Besides, he had also dismissed the state unit BJP as a force not to be reckoned with.

However, such statements of the former prime minister have sparked strong resentment from the section of the Dal leaders in the state who were working overtime for cobbling together a non-Congress platform to take on the Congress in the next elections.

Senior Janata Dal leader and former minister Bijay Mahapatra had on Sunday mooted the proposal for unity among the non-Congress forces in the state including the BJP. He had conveyed this to Gowda and party president Sharad Yadav who, party sources said, had invited him to Delhi to discuss the matter.

Gowda's explanation on the induction of Srikant Jena and Dilip Ray in his cabinet on the advice of the late Dal leader Biju Patnaik has also few takers in the state party. Criticising him for spreading such falsehood about the late leader, Acharya advised the former prime minister to stop giving such statements about Patnaik. Addressing the Panikoili rally on November 8, Gowda had clarified that he had not inducted Patnaik in his cabinet as he was not interested. He had also said that Jena and Ray were inducted as ministers on the advice of Patnaik. But the proposal to reach an understanding with the BJP is being opposed by a section of the party who prefer to toe the central partyline. Explaining the official Dal stand in the state, the state unit secretary Narendra Kumar Swain said that there was no question of any understanding with the BJP.

Swain said that the official position of the JD was to fight both the communal forces and Congress simultaneously. He said that the seat adjustments would be decided by the parliamentary board of the party and the state unit has no role in it. The Dal secretary said that the central party would not allow any understanding with the BJP, and the state unit was not independent from the central party.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.