NEW DELHI, Aug 1: The wheel turned a full circle as the ironical situation in which the Janata Dal (JD) found itself in became abunduntly clear after the Delhi High Court ruled that charges be slapped in the Hawala case against Sharad Yadav holding fort in the jinxed post of the party's presidency.

Yadav veritably proved a ``successor'' to former JD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav who had to step down from the party leadership due to his alleged involvement in the Rs 950-crore fodder scam in Bihar. And today, present chief Sharad Yadav finds himself in a spot no different from his predecessor.

Sharad today became the first political leader against whom a Delhi court decided to frame charges in the Jain-hawala case, following which the newly-elected JD president came under attack from Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leaders, who demanded his resignation.

Special judge VB Gupta ruled that the charges would be framed against Sharad and other co-accused on August 21 as Sharad had himself made ``extra-judicial confession'' in the media that he had ``received money from Jain brothers for party funds''.

It was, therefore, ``not correct to say that the allegations made against the accused persons (in this case) are groundless or there is no sufficient ground for proceeding with trial against them'', Gupta observed.

Meanwhile, the JD leadership put up a brave face today by pledging full support to Sharad. But in the bargain they dropped the move to embarrass Prime Minister IK Gujral on the continuance of three RJD Ministers in his Government.

Although some of the Union Ministers belonging to Karnataka had been insisting on the party leadership not to precipitate the matter, hawks were bent upon raising it at the two-day national council meeting beginning tomorrow. But they virtually surrendered today in the wake of the latest developments.

They also suffered some set back yesterday when CBI officials investigating fodder scam sought the Army's help in arresting Laloo, although he had declared that he would surrender. The Left, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other anti-Laloo forces had to cut a sorry figure on the subject in Parliament and outside.

Sharad's supporters, who were expecting that their leader would be exonerated today by the judge and had made CBI's charge-sheet against Laloo in the fodder scam a big issue, came in for a rude shock this afternoon when Sharad was found prima facie guilty of favouring Jains to get Rs 5 lakhs when he was a Minister in the VP Singh Government.

The issue of corruption was to be raised in a big way at the convention. But now Sharad is on the defensive. However, he is in no mood to resign, saying, ``I am not holding any public office.''

He told The Indian Express that he had taken money for the party and given full account of the same to the party. ``Who does not take money ? Let the country honestly debate on the issue and tell which party does not take money to run its affairs ?'' he asked.

Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda also came to Sharad's defence, saying the case was pending in the Supreme Court (SC) when he submitted the nomination papers for the party post.

Ramai Ram, president of the Bihar unit of the JD, came out with a classic argument. He said,``There is a difference between Section 302 (murder) and Section 323 (slapping). Laloo murdered democracy through fodder scam. The case of the two Yadavs can not be compared.'' A meeting of state presidents of the JD held here today also pledged support to Sharad. But the leadership has been put on the defensive, while the RJD has mounted an all-out offensive.

Som Pal, an official spokesman of the RJD, said Sharad should hand over the party reins to Laloo now. However, it has been decided that elections for the 74-member national executive of the JD would be held tomorrow. The electoral college would comprise of members of the national council, MPs, MLAs and presidents of the state units, among others.

Sharad has been able to persuade Human Resources Development Minister SR Bommai to attend the convention.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.