Friday, December 30 2005 14:49 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Janata Dal-United (JD-U) today (Dec 30, 2005) asserted it was not drifting away from National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) despite holding different views on certain matters, which it described as 'healthy difference of opinion'.

"It (variance in views) should not be seen as signs of JD(U) drifting away from BJP. These are all healthy differences of opinion," JD(U) Parliamentary Board Chairman Sharad Yadav told sources in an interview.

He was answering a question on JD(U) adopting a different course on the recent Constitution (Amendment) Bill in Parliament on reservation to SC/ST and economically backward students in unaided educational institutions and on the issue of expulsion of tainted MPs from Parliament.

"On the tainted MPs issue, he said that even BJP wanted action against them. Our only difference with it was on procedure. BJP wanted that the matter be referred to the Privileges Committee, whereas we wanted immediate action to avoid any delay," he said.

Accepting that JD(U)'s opinion was different from that of BJP on these two recent issues, Yadav said JD(U) was very much a part of the BJP-led NDA at the Centre.

Asked to comment on outgoing BJP President L K Advani's remark that BJP's mission will not be complete without completion of Ram Temple at Ayodhya, Yadav said NDA's stand was whatever decision had to be taken it would be as per court verdict or through negotiation. "Both of us (JD-U and BJP) are bound by that agreement," he said.