Party chief Sharad Yadav too threw in his lot with those proposing the reunification idea and in the process, antagonised former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and some others toeing the line that the JD should not have anything to do with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

After two rounds of meetings of the political affairs committee (PAC), the party was still nowhere near a resolution of differences, indicating that a split is on the cards. The PAC will meet again tomorrow to continue the deliberations.

The PAC discussed the Karnataka situation at its morning session. Patel explained that he had not done anything wrong by holding talks with Fernandes and Hegde, saying itwas in consonance with the State party executive's resolution. He clarified that he had only told the two that he would place their proposal of the JD becoming part of the NDA before the PAC.While Gowda said the party could not ally with the BJP or its allies under any circumstance, Madhu Dandavate asked Patel to explain the political rationale behind his move. He wanted to know how the BJP would agree to part with 100 out of the 224 Assembly seats if the JD were to have an alliance with that party. If the BJP was agreeable to this proposition, it meant the JD was indeed strong in the State and did not need any alliance to shore it up.

Some PAC members said after the morning session the PAC had no objection to Patel holding talks with Fernandes and Hegde provided the two severed their links with the BJP. But Patel later told reporters that nobody in the State executive had objected to his holding talks with the two leaders. ``I will continue to hold discussions with them,'' he said.

In the eveningsession, when the PAC discussed the Bihar situation, leaders from the State including Paswan, Kamla Sinha, Naval Kishore Rai and D P Yadav made out a strong case for a tie-up with the Samata Party to fight the Rashtriya Janata Dal.

Significantly, Prime Minister A B Vajpayee spoke to Patel over the telephone before the PAC met.

Both Sharad Yadav and Gujral are also said to have supported those proposing the tie-up with the Samata Party and Lok Shakti in Bihar and Karnataka. Yadav is said to have contended that the party's national identity was under serious threat and it was time for it to adopt a ``practical approach'' without splitting hairs about secularism and ideology.

Gujral reminded the meeting that in the last elections, the party could only win six Lok Sabha seats. ``This time, even this number may not be there,'' he said, arguing that the debate over communalism and secularism had ceased to be an issue.