George to campaign for Mulayam if JD(U) allies with Apna Dal

New Delhi, Oct 13 (UNI) NDA Convenor George Fernandes, who is facing problems within his Janata Dal (United), today said he would prefer to campaign for the Samajwadi Party in the forthcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh if his party went ahead with its proposal to have alliance with Apna Dal even as the BJP tried to soft pedal the issue.

Answering a question if he would campaign for Mulayam Singh Yadav's party after his meeting with BJP statement L K Advani, Mr Fernandes repiled in the affirmative. When it was brought to his attention that the JD (U) had announced it would go ahead with its alliance with Sone Lal Patel's Apna Dal, the former Defence Minister said in that event he would prefer to campaign for Samajwadi Party.

Mr Fernandes's comments comes in the wake of Apna Dal's intentions to field terrorist suspects Abu Salem and Bablu Srivastava for the Assembly elections.

BJP General Secretary Arun Jaitley, however, said Mr Advani's meeting with the NDA convenor was 'pleasant' and the two leaders discussed 'all issues' during the hour-long meeting. ''The party is satisfied with the meeting,'' he said, but avoided an answer to Mr Fernandes' statement that he would campaign for Samajwadi Party.

BJP sources said that Mr Fernandes' problems appeared to be confined to be with the J D (U) and BJP did not have problems with him. The BJP has fully backed the former Defence Minister named by the CBI in the purchase of Isreal's Barak missile system for the Indian Navy. The party is also of the feeling that the Rs two crore kickbacks the CBI was referring to was based on the statement of the then Treasurer R K Jain and did not carry much weight. Even J D (U) President and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, with whom Mr Fernandes had had differences, had also openly stated that they did not doubt his integrity.

Mr Fernandes had recently stated that he would 'happily go out' of NDA if they did not want him and the J D (U) had no use for him and none would miss him.

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