With its merger into the Janata Parivar likely to be announced today, RJD said it will celebrate the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar on April 17, roughly two and a half months before the actual date July 1.
Asked to explain the rational behind the advanced celebration, RJD Bihar president Ram Chandra Purve said, "Death anniversaries are constant, but birth anniversaries could be celebrated prior to the actual date in case of big leaders."
The celebration, likely to be Rashtriya Janata Dal's last function before it gets into the Janata amalgam, would take place in the state capital here and party supremo Lalu Prasad inaugurating the event, Purve said today.
"Our national president Lalu Prasad will inaugurate it, as the party has always held Chandra Shekhar in high regard. He was a big leader and had very good relations with Prasad. The function will be organised at party headquarters in Patna,"Purve told PTI.
Attacking the BJP for "trying to encash the name of Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar", the RJD leader said the saffron party organised a big workers' congregation on his birth anniversary, but its leaders did not say anything about him in their speeches.
RJD national vice-president Illyas Hussain, while talking about the merger of Janata Parivar parties, said everything would change as all the stakeholders would discard their symbols and flags to come under "one flag, one symbol, one leader".
"With the emergence of a new, united party everything will change. Prasad is the backbone of RJD and this merger. Mulayam Singh Yadav will be the president of the new entity, and he will decide what post will be given to Prasad," Hussain said.
