NEW DELHI, May 30: A Belligerent Janata Dal president, Laloo Prasad Yadav, today served a show-cause notice on the party's Returning Officer P K Samantray for his refusal to accept Laloo's suggestion to rectify the alleged irregularities in the membership of the electoral college.

Going a step ahead, he also threatened to lodge an FIR (first information report) in New Delhi against those people who had committed the irregularities in constitution the party's electoral college, the National Council.

The JD president's offensive is aimed at his rival for the party presidentship, Sharad Yadav, who Laloo supporters claim has rigged the electoral college so that Sharad will have a definite edge in case of a contest.

Reacting to this development, the working president said that once the election process started, nobody could interfere with the conduct of the polls.

With both Yadavs digging in their heels, Janata Dal leaders are fearful that the presidential election may lead to major bloodletting in the party and even trigger of a split.

In fact, party sources fear that Laloo is contemplating throwing out the Returning Officer and replacing him with his own man for daring to disobey him.

Indicating that he means business, Laloo gave the Returning Officer a deadline of less than 24 hours and, in the process, issued a warning that if Samantray did not give his reply by 10 am tomorrow, ``I will take action against him by tomorrow noon.''

Far from being cowed by his party chief, Samantray, a party general secretary, had earlier in the day rejected off-hand Laloo's demand that the venue of the presidential election should be in Patna. Samantray maintained that instead, the elections will be conducted at the headquarters of all State units on June 10.

Samantray also turned down Laloo's unilateral declaration that the elections will be held on the first day of the the three-day national conference, commencing on June 10. In fact, the returning officer somewhat insolently seemed to imply that since Laloo is now a candidate, he was no longer the officiating president of the party. ``He should have taken decisions about the venue and time before filing his nomination papers for the presidential election.'' He maintained, ``I received a written invitation from the Bihar Chief Minister only on May 29, a day after he filed his nomination papers,'' he said.

Samantray, a protege of Biju Patnaik, said definitively that he will decide the venue and date of the party's national convention in consultation with the president-elect. ``The name of the new president will be officially announced by me on the first day,'' he claimed.

Speaking to mediapersons later in the day in his Bihar Niwas suite, Laloo insisted that he had the authority to remove the Returning Officer. ``If the national executive has doubts about the RO's integrity, then he can be removed and replaced by another person. Since the national executive is not in session, in such circumstances it is the party president who can wield this power,'' he maintained.

Taking a dig at his rival, he said that the contest for the party president's post was basically a fight between a mass-leader and a person who had nothing to show.

Laloo also alleged that some of his colleagues within the party had hatched a conspiracy to ease him out. ``Many enemies in the garb of pickpockets have gotten into the act. It is my job to save the party from such elements,'' he said.

The two Yadav contenders for the top post in the party kept up a facade of friendliness at the party headquarters at Janatar Mantar, where they met briefly this afternoon during the scrutiny of nomination papers, but it was obvious that the knives were out in both camps.

The contest for the Dal's top post, in the meanwhile, narrowed down to the two Yadav stalwarts after the Returning Officer rejected the third candidate, T Sivagnanasambandam's nomination paper

.Both Yadavs view the contest as a question of the survival of their political future. Laloo cannot afford to lose since he fears that he may, in any case, have to step down from his post as Chief Minister in view of the fodder scam. For Sharad this is a chance to vindicate himself since he was deprived of the Cabinet Ministership .

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.