JANATA DAL-Limited Options

of the Janata Dal(JD), decided upon a most ingenious way to stake his claim to the presidentship of the party in the coming JD party presidential polls on June 10. He vociferously defended the demand for a separate quota for OBC women in the women's reservation bill, reducing prime minister IK Gujral of his own party to silence in the parliamentary debate. Whatever may be the fate of the women's reservation bill, Sharad Yadav made deft use of the occasion to project himself as the champion of the OBC interests and thus the most legitimate choice to lead the JD.