Janata Parivar splinter groups make unity move to take on BJP

Leaders of various splinter groups of the old Janata Parivar today came together giving a clarion call for "unity" of "secular" forces amid ongoing efforts to revive the Janata Dal to take on BJP.
Shedding off ambiguity over the demand for unity against the "challenge from Sangh Parivar", former Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that the days of talking about it in suggestions or indirectly are over and it's "time for all those following Lohia, Chaudhary Charan Singh or Samajwadis to come together".
The occasion was a rally by RLD chief Ajit Singh to make a demand to convert his former official residence 12 Tughlaq Road a memorial after his father and farmer leader Chaudhary Charan Singh.

On the dais were former Prime Minister and JD(S) chief H D Deve Gowda, Nitish Kumar, JD(U) President Sharad Yadav, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's brother Shivpal Yadav and some Congress leaders from Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
"Shivpal ji do you not want that all of us join together. We have no problem. You and Mulayam Singh Yadav ji have to think. I have been fighting Lalu Prasad for 20 years in Bihar but when the danger came, we did not delay for a moment and got united.
"If we get united, the country will get a direction. If you remain separate, you will keep falling. If you fall on slope you do not get a support, Lohia had said so. Beware before you start falling," Kumar said, a contention, which was supported by all others.

The ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh was decimated in recent Lok Sabha election with BJP nearly sweeping the 80 seats.

Agreeing to Kumar's pitch, Deve Gowda said that an effort to bring together these forces was also made during the Lok Sabha polls but it did not succeed.
"What happened has happened. The time now is to bring together Janata Parivar..... We should attempt to forge unity among secular forces," he said.
While JD(U) general secretary K C Tyagi said that even the Sangh Parivar cannot match the power of Janata Parivar if these parties come together, SP's Shivpal Singh Yadav said, "Even today if we start working together, the communal forces will be kicked away."

The message of unity from old Janata Parivar family has come months after Narendra Modi juggernaut decimated Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and JD(U) and RJD in Bihar in the Lok Sabha polls.
While the coming together of Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar for the Bihar assembly bye-polls was the first major move towards this larger unity, JD(U) has already announced its support to Om Prakash Chautala-led INLD in the forthcoming Assembly elections.