No hiccups in Janata Parivar merger

The merger of Janata Parivar will be announced in time to prepare for Bihar polls and the six constituents have decided on the symbol and the flag of the proposed new party, its leaders said here today.

JD (U) National General Secretary K C Tyagi said they have zeroed-in on two names, 'Samajwadi Janata Dal' and 'Samajwadi Janata Party', one of which will be chosen for the new party.

"There are no hiccups in the merger now," Tyagi told PTI.

The Janata Parivar parties have decided to "adopt Samajwadi Party (SP) symbol bicycle", as well as, red and green flag after their merger into one party, a top Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader, who did not wish to be named, told PTI.

Asked about seat sharing between the leaders of JD (U) and RJD in the Bihar Assembly elections scheduled later this year, Tyagi said, "Bihar polls are definitely our focus, but first let the new party form. We want to concentrate on Bihar with our full strength, which is the reason we want the merger to happen quickly."

Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, who has been authorised to oversee and facilitate the merger, is currently in lucknow. "He is expected to arrive in Delhi today or tomorrow to meet INlD leader Abhay Chautala and Deve Gowda, after which the merger will be announced," Tyagi said.

The six parties, which are in the process of uniting, are Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) or JD (U), lalu Prasad's RJD, SP, Om Prakash Chautala's Indian National lok Dal (INlD), Janata Dal (Secular) led by former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and Samajwadi Janata Party (SJP).

The merger is being touted as an effort to take on the BJP, which, barring Delhi, has notched strong performances in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir after coming to power at the Centre in May 2014.

Sources said decisions to adopt symbol and flag of SP was taken considering its superior strength in the Parliament and Uttar Pradesh Assembly.

The SP has five seats in the lok Sabha, 15 in the Rajya Sabha and 232 in the 403 member state Assembly. It is in power in Uttar Pradesh.

On the other hand, RJD has four lok Sabha members and one in the Rajya Sabha, while JD (U) has two in the lok Sabha and 12 in the Rajya Sabha.

Former Prime Minister Deve Gowda's Janata Dal has total two seats in the lok Sabha and one in the Rajya Sabha, while INlD has two members in the lower House and one in the Upper House of the Parliament.

In totality, the new party will have strength of 15 members in the lower House and 30 in the Upper House.