With Samajwadi Party leaders voicing concern over losing leader status in Rajya Sabha after unification of Janata parivar, party’s national 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 new political entity in Rajya Sabha should be the man who is there in that House for the longest period of time. Sharad Yadav is not 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 SP fear 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 lose to the party as SP is the largest party in Rajya Sabha among the six parties that announced merger early this week.
The six parties that will merge are Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Janata dal (U), Janata Dal (S), Indian National lok Dal and Samajwadi Janata Party. 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 RJD four. Other three partners – JD (U), Janata Dal (S) and INlD have two seats each. In Rajya Sabha the alliance has 30 seats. Again SP is leading the pack with 15 seats followed by JD (U) 12.
“Seniority counts everywhere. So, in Rajya Sabha too Ram Gopal Yadav should be the leader of Janata parivar,” he said adding that new political dispensation will give an opportunity to all the secular forces to unite. “With the decimation of Congress post lok Sabha elections it was important for secular parties should unite. The Samajwadi party is a national party and its stature will go up with unification of like-minded parties,” he said.