Nitish hints at merger of splinter groups to counter BJP (Update:Third front)

Former Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday hinted that the leaders who attended the meeting at Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's residence could merge in the near future and listed three major issues among others to keep the BJP-led government at the Centre on its toes.

"Following the meeting today, we unanimously decided that we should work together. As of now, we have decided to work together; whether a merger will happen or not we will see in the future," Nitish told a press conference here.

The Janata Dal (United) leader emphasized that they have, during the meeting today, unanimously decided to raise issues like black money and unemployment,and the promises made by the ruling BJP prior to the Lok Sabha polls.

"On several issues, we have decided that we will all work together as one unit and raise our voices. One issue is that of the black money, which was raised during the election campaigns. And now the government is taking a U-turn on the issue, they say that the amount of black money is not known," he said.

"They had promised during the election campaign that they would get back every penny of black money, and that every individual could receive fifteen lakhs each. Therefore, that money should be brought back and must be distributed," he added.

Continuing his tirade against Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre, Nitish said the second major issue is unemployment.

"The youth here were promised jobs and creating crores of job opportunities. We have got information now that for the next one year there is a stop on new appointments. So, this is a big question which is related to the youth and they must get jobs and we will raise this issue strongly," Nitish said, and claimed that the farmers of the country have been cheated as false promises were made to them prior to the polls.

Talking about the meeting, the former Bihar chief minister said all the parties have stressed on unity and even on merger, but this could take some time.

He also thanked Mulayam Singh Yadav for taking the initiative to hold the meeting.

Janata Dal (Secular) chief and former prime minister Deve Gowda, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, Janata Dal United (JD-U) chief Sharad Yadav, two leaders from the INLD, party MP Dushyant Singh Chautala and Haryana unit's president as well as president of Chandrashekhar's Samajwadi Janata Party (r) Kamal Morarka, besides other leaders were present during the meeting.