More than two decades after the then Janata Dal disintegrated, six of its constituents merged on Wednesday to form a new party which will be headed by Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Announcing the merger, Janata Dal-United president Sharad Yadav said a six-member committee will decide on the name of the new party, its symbol, flag and other details.
“We have merged,” Sharad Yadav told reporters after top leaders of Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal-United, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Indian National Lok Dal, Janata Dal-Secular and Samajwadi Janata Party met at Mulayam Singh Yadav’s residence.
The decision comes ahead of the Bihar assembly elections where Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of JD-U and one time bitter rival RJD head Lalu Prasad have joined hands to take on a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party, which had routed them in Lok Sabha elections in 2014. Both leaders were present at the joint press conference.
“It’s a historic decision... We have united and we assure people that this will be a strong bond. We will respect the feelings of people,” Mulayam said. He will also be the head of the parliamentary party of the new outfit.
The six-member committee will include JD-S head and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, Prasad, Om Prakash Chautala of INLD, Sharad Yadav, Ram Gopal Yadav of SP and Kamal Morarka of Samajwadi Janata Party.
Mulayam said a new national party was needed to take on the Narendra Modi government which had “failed” in fulfilling any of its big promises made during the elections.
“This is an arrogant government. For the first time we have a government at the Centre which does not consult opposition parties. They made all sorts of promises. What happened to them. 24-hour electricity, jobs for unemployed youths... Where are these?
“Whenever we have come together, we have formed government in Delhi. We will do it again,” he said, in a reference to 1975 and 1989 when socialist parties had joined hands to take on then incumbent Congress. BJP was part of the anti-Congress alliance on the both occasions.
In 1996, these outfits had made a non-Congress, non-BJP alliance named United Front and formed government with the support of Congress.
After forming the government in 1989 under the leadership of V P Singh, the then Janata Dal had split and one after another its regional satraps like Mulayam, Deve Gowda, Nitish and Lalu formed their own outfits.
SP has five members in Lok Sabha followed by RJD with four MPs while JD-U, JD-S and INLD each has two legislators, giving the grouping a total of 15 members in the Lower House.
In Rajya Sabha too, SP leads the pack with 15 members while JD-U has 12 and INLD, JD-S and RJD one MP each. Their total number in the Upper House is 30.
In Parliament, Mulayam could be the leader of the new group in Lok Sabha while Sharad Yadav could be named its leader in Rajya Sabha.
While assembly elections are due in Bihar this year-end, SP-ruled Uttar Pradesh goes to polls in 2017. BJP has succeeded in making major gains in Lok Sabha polls in these two states.
