Political parties of Janata family to meet today

Leaders of the erstwhile Janata Dal family, including Janata Dal (United), Janata Dal (Secular), Indian National Lok Dal, Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) will meet this afternoon at SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's residence to discuss the modalities for their merger and to create a new party with the objective of countering the policies of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Reports say that if a consensus evolves, the new party could be named as the 'Samajwadi Janata Dal'.

Commenting on the same, Samajwadi Party leader Naresh Agarwal said, "The entire country believes Mulayamji is their 'Neta', only Netaji can stand against him (Prime Minister Narendra Modi)."

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy added, "When they come together, the first meet is to unite, second is to dismantle."

Besides SP Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, the meeting will be attended today by JD (U) leaders Sharad Yadav and Nitish Kuamr, RJD chief Lalu Prasad, Janata Dal's (Secular) HD Deve Gowda and Indian National Lok Dal's Dushyant Chautala.