Janata parties merger likely Sunday

After being in the works for the past few months, six political parties of the erstwhile Janata Parivar are likely to announce their merger on Sunday after a meeting here.

During the meeting, the leaders of all six political parties will decide on the name of the new outfit and the symbol, sources said, adding that the party is sure to have the tag of “Samajwadi”.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, JD( U) chief Sharad Yadav, RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav and representatives from the Indian National Lok Dal and the Samajwadi Janata Party will attend the meeting.

Mr Mulayam Yadav, whose SP has the largest number of MPs among the parties which have planned the proposed merger, will be the chairman of the new umbrella entity, the sources informed.

The merger of the parties comes just months ahead of the crucial elections to the Bihar Assembly and assumes greater significance in the wake of all Opposition parties joining together to fight the BJP.

The wheel symbol of the Janata Dal was frozen in 1999 as the party was split into the JD( U) led by Sharad Yadav and JD( S) under H. D. Deve Gowda when the former decided to join the then NDA government led by Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee.

The two parties were then allotted separate symbols.

Sources said that while the new party’s name could be either Samajwadi Janata Party or Samajwadi Janata Dal, the party is actively considering the wheel symbol as well as the cycle, which is currently the SP party symbol.