Lalu endorses PM's view on growing regional parties

New Delhi, Nov 6 : Railway Minister Lalu Prasad today strongly endorsed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's observation on the growing clout of regional parties that was making it difficult for the ruling coalition at the Centre to deliver better governance in a federal set-up.

''Whatever the Prime Minister said at the Fourth International Conference on Federalism yesterday is absolutely correct, and I endorse his ideas,'' Mr Prasad said, on the sidelines of a function at Rail Bhavan.

Inaugurating the conference, Dr Singh had asked policy-makers to consider whether a single party regime had an advantage over a multi-partry model in terms of delivering better governance in a federal set-up.

''In a modern state, does a single party state have any advantages in managing Centre-state relations smoothly as opposed to a multi-party system? Or is a multi-party model, with national parties dominating the political scene, superior where one can hope that all of these parties will take a national view on policy issues?'' the Prime Minister asked.

Asked to comment on Dr Singh's observation, Mr Prasad, who is president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal -- a regional party with strong clout in the UPA government at the Centre, said the Prime Minister had articulated what was being witnessed in the current political scenario.

''It is a fact that regional parties have now emerged as 'original' parties. These are the realities of a coalition arrangement. So long as coalition governments are there at the Centre, such a problem will also be there,'' he said.

UNI