Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav may formally announce the coming together of ‘Janata Parivar’ on Wednesday. The new entity to be named either Samajwadi Janata Party or Samajwadi Janata Dal with cycle as its symbol will be announced in the presence of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav, JD(S) chief and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, RJD chief lalu Prasad, Samajwadi Janata Party chief Kamal Morarka and INlD leader Dushyant Chautala.
Mulayam with largest number of MPs among the six in both lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, will be the chairman of the new umbrella entity. The process of coming together of the Janata Parivar had begun soon after lok Sabha polls, which saw BJP decimating JD(U) and RJD in Bihar, Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and marginalising INlD in Haryana. The development comes ahead of Bihar Assembly polls later this year and the 2017 UP polls.
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. During his party’s national executive meeting early this month, RJD chief lalu Prasad had given the slogan of “Ek Jhanda, Ek Nishan” (one flag, one symbol), almost announcing the merger and had dared the BJP to come to Bihar
The first task after the merger the party is likely to take is the protest against the controversial land bill soon after the Budget session of the Parliament resumes next week. A senior leader of JD (U) however expressed unhappiness over Congress due to its attempt to take all the credit for the land bill protests even as leaders of the Janata Parivar equally played a “key role” in uniting the opposition on the issue. The new outfit may announce their different strategy after the formal merger announcement is done.
Janata Parivar, with its 30 RS members will emerge as the second-biggest Opposition party after Congress and be a key to the larger Opposition unity against the treasury benches, which are in a big minority in the Upper House.