The merger of six parties of the erstwhile Janata Parivar could finally become a reality on Sunday and the new party may carry the ‘Samajwadi’ tag. The leaders of the six political parties will meet to finally shape-up the much-talked about “socialist” parties’ merger to counter the Modi juggernaut, especially against the backdrop of Assembly elections in Bihar later this year and in UP in 2017.
The meeting, chaired by Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, is expected to be attended by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, JD (U) chief Sharad Yadav, RJD president lalu Prasad and representatives from the Indian National lok Dal, the Samajwadi Janata Party and the JD (S).
Mulayam, who has the largest number of MPs in his party — out of the six merging parties, will be the chairman of the new political outfit. The meeting will decide over the name and election symbol of the new entity as currently each of the six constituents of the Janata Parivar has a separate symbol. “All the leaders of the Janata Parivar constituents will meet at Mulayam Singh Yadav’s residence on April 5 to also discuss the programmes to be held by the new entity,” sources said.
Sources said that while the new party’s name could be either Samajwadi Janata Party or Samajwadi Janata Dal, the constituents are actively considering to go for either the wheel or the cycle as their symbol. The wheel symbol of Janata Dal was frozen in 1999 as the party was split into JD (U) led by Sharad Yadav and JD(S) under HD Deve Gowda, when the former decided to join the then NDA Government led by Atal Bihari Vajpyee.
The two parties were then allotted separate symbols. And cycle is currently the SP party symbol. In Parliament, if Mulayam could be the leader of the new group in lok Sabha, then Sharad Yadav could be named its leader in Rajya Sabha. 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. Nitish Kumar was in the national capital last week and had held back-to-back meetings with the Janata Parivar leaders, visiting even Tihar jail to meet INlD chief Om Prakash Chautala. He had also called on AAP leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
After defeats in the lok Sabha polls by the Narendra Modi-led BJP in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, SP, JD-U and RJD are particularly keen that the merger happens fast. Especially, since the BJP has succeeded in making major gains in lok Sabha polls in these two States.