Patna, Jan 06: Warring factions of the Bihar unit of the Samata Party today ruled out the possibility of a split in the party but stopped short of calling a truce.

Samata national general secretary Satish Kumar of the pro-Nitish Kumar faction, which has called a meeting of the state executive committee on January 19 despite it being declared unconstitutional by state Samata president Raghunath Jha, ruled out any chances of a split in a press conference. State Samata Legislature Party leader Umashanker Singh also told reporters separately that there would be no split. However, Satish Kumar, MLA, declared that the January 19 meeting called to discuss important organisational matters would take place at any cost as it had the sanction of railway minister Nitish Kumar.

Satish Kumar, who was also part of the NDA delegation that submitted a memorandum to the Governor V C Pande, told reporters that the meeting would take place despite it being declared unconstitutional by state party president, Raghunath Jha and national spokesman Shambhu Srivastava as it had the sanction of the undisputed leader of party, Nitish Kumar. Kumar, who along with state vice-president Shyam Sunder Singh Dheeraj, had walked out of the NDA meeting here on January 2 chaired by the NDA convenor George Fernandes after lodging their protest over not inviting the railway minister, said any Samata leader showing disrespect to Nitish Kumar will have no place in the party.

Bureau Report