In what is being described as the start of a process of reunification of socialist and secular forces, the Socialist Janata (Democratic), a minor constituent of Kerala’s Congress-led ruling UDF and a splinter group of the Janata Dal(S), on Sunday merged with the Janata Dal(U) at a meeting organised in central Kerala’s Thrissur city.
The merger was formalised with national JD(U) president Sharad Yadav and former Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar jointly presenting the party flag to SJ(D)’s State president MP Veerendra Kumar, who was declared as the JD(U)’s new Kerala chief at the meeting, in the presence of over 25,000 party delegates at the Thekkinkadu Grounds in Thrissur.
Inaugurating the merger meeting, Sharad Yadav said that the Janata Parivar reunification was taking place at a time when the BJP-led Government in the Centre was trying to “divide” the country on communal lines. Nitish Kumar claimed that the reunification of Janata Pariwar had great relevance in the present circumstances.
Veerendra Kumar, who presided over the meeting, said in his speech, “I believe that the journey we start here in Thrissur will end at the Red Fort in Delhi. What the communalists used to say earlier only in private is now being said in public. A battle against them is inevitable. The reunification of socialists in such a situation is necessary.”
Veerendra Kumar, then State chief of the Janata Dal(S) which had been a partner in the CPI(M)-led lDF, and his loyalists had floated the SJ(D) after the Marxists took over the Kozhikode seat from him in the 2009 lok Sabha election. After that, the JD(S) joined the UDF. Kumar’s party presently has two members in the State Assembly and a Minister in the UDF Cabinet.
The newly installed State JD(U) chief completed the process of merger by handing over party flags to its presidents in the 14 districts of the State. At the same time, reports said that several leaders of the JD(U) unit which was already in existence in Kerala were against the merger with the SJ(D) as it led to loss of their positions and seniority.
Earlier, the JD(U) leaders told newsmen that splinter groups of the Janata Parivar and parties with similar ideologies and principles should come together to oppose the BJP’s “divisive” ideology. Sharad Yadav said that the split in the socialist movement had cost the country heavily as it had led to the growth of the BJP.