Existential threat forces Janata Parivar reunion

Six political parties, all of whom draw their lineage from the erstwhile Janata Dal, on Thursday authorised Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav to work out the “modalities” of their merger into a single party, likely to be called Samajwadi Janata Dal.

The six parties are SP, Lalu Prasad-led Rashtriya Janata Dal, H D Deve Gowda-headed Janata Dal (Secular), Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav-led Janata Dal (United), Samajwadi Janata Party (SJP) and Om Prakash Chautala’s Indian National Lok Dal (INLD).

The previous such merger of the Janata Parivar parties took place in the late 1980s, while the 1990s saw a series of splits in the parent party, but these parties came together as separate entities to be part of the United Front government of 1996 to 1998.

The six parties also decided to stage a joint dharna in Delhi on December 22 to protest the Narendra Modi government’s failure to bring back black money stashed in foreign banks, its “U-turns” on issues concerning farmers and rising unemployment.

Prickly egos of Parivar leaders had led to multiple splits over the years. However, their leadership on Thursday denied that it was the Modi factor that has forced them to bury their differences and come together as a single party.

Modi, with his claims of being a tea-seller from an other backward castes community and promise of a better future for the youth, had found sizeable support from the traditional voters of these parties in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Nitish Kumar said all the leaders felt that there should be “one party”, as they share same philosophy and principles. He said the six-party combine would also reach out to the Left parties. Besides Nitish and Mulayam, Sharad, Lalu, Dushyant Chautala, Kamal Morarka and Deve Gowda were present at the meeting.

The primary objective, apart from presenting a united face in Parliament, is also to prepare for the Assembly elections in UP and Bihar.

UP Assembly elections are scheduled for early-2017, while Bihar is likely to go to poll by the end of 2015. The Modi-led campaign of BJP had totally blanked out the two parties in UP and Bihar in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Sources said former constituents like Biju Janata Dal and Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Jan Shakti Party have not been approached. BJD has a government in Odisha while Paswan is a Cabinet minister in the Modi-led government at the Centre. Paswan’s party had fought the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the BJP.

The merger comes at a time when Mulayam and Lalu are mulling a marriage alliance. Mulayam’s grand nephew Tej Pratap, an MP, is set to wed Lalu’s youngest daughter Raj Lakshmi. It was the rivalry between the two Yadavs that had frustrated any move to forge an alliance all through the 1990s and 2000s.

TOGETHER AGAIN

• SP, JD(U), SJP, INLD, JD(S) and RJD have decided to merge
• Immediate challenge is end-2015’s Bihar Assembly polls
• SP is in power in Uttar Pradesh and JD(U), with RJD support, is in power in Bihar
• The Lok Sabha tally of the Samajwadi Janata Dal is only 15 – SP 5, RJD 4 and 2 each of INLD, JD (S) and JD(U)
• The Rajya Sabha tally of the group is 30 – SP 15, JD (U) 12 and one each of JD (S), INLD and RJD