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Samata drops its defences for Bihar-friendly Paswan

The Samata Party, led by George Fernandes, has adopted a soft attitude towards Union Railway Minister Ram Vilas Paswan although it is fighting the Janata Dal candidates elsewhere in Bihar.

The party has so far not decided to put up its candidate at Hajipur where Paswan is seeking re-election to the Lok Sabha as the Janata Dal candidate.

Fernandes justified his attitude at a press conference, saying that Paswan, as railway minister, had done a lot for Bihar. ''So far we have not decided if we will have a candidate against Paswan'', he added.

The high profile constituencies of Hajipur and Madheupura (Sharad Yadav versus Laloo Prasad Yadav) falls in the quota of the Samata Party in a seat sharing adjustment with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Asked if the party's attitude towards Paswan was part of its strategy to achieve its goal of defeating Laloo Prasad Yadav, Fernandes explained that his goal was to ''defeat the politics of loot and violence of Laloo Prasad Yadav''. How this would be done is yet to be decided, he added.

Former CBI joint director N K Singh will be the Samata candidate at Madhepura.

Under the seat-sharing arrangement with the BJP, the Samata Party has been allotted 22 out of the 54 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. The Samata Party has announced its candidates for 21 seats except Hajipur.

The Samata Party's second list for Bihar has the name of India'sambassador to Syria, Hari Kishore Singh, as the candidate for Sheohar. Singh is a former minister of state for external affairs.

The party also announced two candidates for Uttar Pradesh. Former Union minister Kalpnath Rai, who recently joined the party, will seek re-election from Ghosi constituency and former MP Harikewal Prasad from Salempur.

Former Lok Sabha member Bhabani Shankar Hota will be the party candidate for Sambalpur in Orissa.

In Manipur, the party will support Manipur Peoples Party candidate Ajay Singh for the Manipur Inner Lok Sabha constituency, while the BJP has fielded its candidate for the Manipur Outer constituency.

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