New Delhi, Jan. 6 :     The much-trumpeted reunification of the Janata Dal (United), Lok Shakti and the Samata Party failed to take off today as Samata Party boycotted the merger conference. The dominant Samata stayed away as JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav refused to let George Fernandes take over as president of the unified party. Samata leader Nitish Kumar, who was earlier in Yadav's camp, endorsed the party's decision against the merger. However, a partial unification was effected when Ramakrishna Hegde's Lok Shakti adopted a resolution ratifying unification with the JD(U) and supported Yadav's continuation as chief. Hegde, who was itching to settle scores with Fernandes for manipulating his exclusion from the Union Cabinet, said: 'Today, all of a sudden our Samata friends took a decision to merge only if Fernandes was made president of the new party. Where are their socialist ideals now? Just for a post they do such a thing.' Jeopardising unity among the anti-Laloo forces in Bihar, the Samata has decided to contest the Assembly polls on its own symbol - a flaming torch. Squarely blaming the JD(U) leadership for aborting the reunification, Samata general secretary Jaya Jaitely said her party was not for confrontation and that both parties could work together for seat adjustments. 'We are prepared to cooperate in Bihar, but it is up to them,' she said. Downplaying the fallout of the failure to unify, Fernandes said his party wanted to maintain its separate identity and fight the elections. He said the merger experiment had failed in Karnataka as the JD(U) could not get more than three Lok Sabha seats. Yadav criticised the Samata for its 'somersault', saying he did not think it fit to comment on the party's resolution. Ram Vilas Paswan, known to be soft on Fernandes, however, appealed to the 'Samata friends' to reconsider their decision as only a united party could effectively fight 'Laloo jungle raj'. Mutual suspicion, control over ticket distribution for the Assembly elections and a say in the selection of chief minister in case the JD(U)-Samata combine secured majority appear to be the factors that have forced the Samata to maintain its separate identity. Till yesterday, though, the party had said it was in favour of reunification. JD(U) leaders like Paswan are, however, still hopeful of roping in the Samata. The JD(U) was hurriedly cobbled together with these parties before the 1999 Lok Sabha elections. Though they did not merge officially, all three parties contested under the banner of JD(U) and the symbol 'arrow' temporarily allotted to it. The move did not go down well in Karnataka where the new party came a cropper, while in Bihar it achieved limited success. The JD(U) bagged 20 seats in Bihar (Samata 12, Janata Dal 8). In Karnataka the combine won only three.