The Samajwadi Party’s reluctance to part with its electoral symbol — the cycle — has given a serious jolt to the bid to finalise the much-touted merger of the Janata Parivar.
"There is a technical problem. The problem is that if a political party tells the Election Commission that they are going to merge and form a new party, then the original name and symbols of the party will be frozen. The Bihar elections are near and the merger cannot
be done in a hurry," senior Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav told new agency ANI on Sunday.
"Voters will be confused, especially in Bihar. So the better option at this point of time is that both the parties come together, they share the seats and fight the election jointly. We will be signing the death warrant of our party if we do the merger in a hurry," he added.
Sources said Ram Gopal Yadav has all along been opposed to the merger move, which would have cost him the status of party's leader in the Rajya Sabha. As per the arrangement being worked out among the six constituents of the Pariwar, the post would go to senior Janata Dal (U) leader Sharad Yadav.
Sources said the huge assets held by SP in UP is also a factor that is coming in the way of the merger. Sources said that SP leadership feels that since in the case of merger the assets will be jointly held, SP will be big loser if the Pariwar disintegrates at future date.
In case the merger does not take place before the Bihar Assembly polls, JDU(U) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) will enter into a seat sharing agreement. Sources in both the parties said that they have already reached broad understanding on seat sharing, and matter would be resolved amicably.
Nitish Kumar's JD(U), lalu Prasad Yadav's RJD, Mulayam Singh Yadav's SP, Om Prakash Chautala's Indian National lok Dal (INlD), Chandra Shekhar's Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) and HD Deve Gowda's Janata Dal (Secular) were expected to come under one umbrella under the leadership of Mulayam Singh Yadav.
It will be interesting to see how Mulayam Singh reacts to the statement issued by Ram Gopal, or for that matter what response comes from Nitish Kumar during his post-Janata durbar interaction with journalists on Monday. Sharad Yadav and JD(U) general secretary KC Tyagi are expected to meet officers in the Election Commission on Monday to discuss the issue related to the merger.