With Samajwadi Party leaders voicing concern over losing leader status in the Rajya Sabha after unification of Janata Parivar, party’s general secretary Kironmoy Nanda said that Ram Gopal Yadav should be the leader of unified political force in Upper House not Sharad Yadav as proposed by others.
“The leader of the new political entity in the Rajya Sabha should be the man who is there in that House for the longest period of time. Sharad Yadav is no doubt a senior leader but Ram Gopal Yadav should be the leader of the new political entity in Rajya Sabha on being the oldest member of the House,” Nanda told The Pioneer here on Friday.
He, however, clarified that this is his personal view as the party has not taken a stand on this issue till date. There are reports that the SP fears it might lose leader status in Rajya Sabha to Sharad Yadav following unification of Janata Parivar. The SP leaders here feel losing leadership status would be a big loss to the party as the SP is the largest party in the Rajya Sabha among the six parties that announced merger early this week.
The six parties that will merge are SP, RJD, JD(U), JD(S), INlD and SJP. Mulayam Singh has been declared the leader of the new Parivar. Name and flag of the party would be announced later.
The new political alliance has 15 seats in lok Sabha with Samajwadi Party having 5 seats followed by the RJD four. Other three partners - JD (U), JD(S) and INlD have two seats each. In the Rajya Sabha the alliance has 30 seats. Again the SP is leading the pack with 15 seats followed by JD (U) 12.