George Fernandes, Sharad Yadav: Time for change?

New Delhi, Feb. 6: George Fernandes seems to be on his way out as Janata Dal (United) president, and the man being touted to succeed him is Sharad Yadav.

A formal decision is likely at the national executive meeting of the Dal (U), scheduled in the last week of March.

Sources said Fernandes’s exit as party president has been on the cards not just because the octogenarian leader is not keeping well, but also because his bete noire, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, has grown in stature.

Sharad, who has the support of Nitish, was the president of the party about three years ago when Fernandes replaced him following the Samata Party’s merger with the Dal (U).

But for last one year or so, Nitish, and not Fernandes, has been calling the shots in the Dal (U).

The victory in the Bihar Assembly polls, besides winning him the chief minister’s post, has added to his weight in the party.

Well-placed sources said what has made Fernandes’s exit almost a certainty is his close proximity to the BJP ? a fact that no longer suits the Dal (U), at least in Bihar.

Despite being in a coalition with the BJP, the Dal (U) is desperately trying to wean away Muslims from the RJD camp.

Sharad has consistently stood by Nitish, now the undisputed mass leader of the Dal (U), and has been trying to emerge as an alternative to Fernandes. He is also seen as a leader who is not blindly with the BJP.

Sources said the frail health of Fernandes has given the Nitish faction an opportunity to plot his exit and look for a successor.

But Fernandes is known for springing surprises. One of his loyalists, requesting anonymity, said: “I will not be surprised if Mr George Fernandes bounces back in the race.”