Decision on Janata merger next week

The formalities will take another fortnight as each party will have to call a convention to pass “dissolution” resolution

Just days ahead of the second half of the Budget Session of Parliament, six Janata Parivar parties are set to announce their decision to merge into a larger entity here on Wednesday under the leadership of Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh.

The formalities will take another fortnight or so, sources in the Janata Dal (United) said, as each of the parties will have to call a convention to pass the “dissolution” resolution. Once that is done, the new party will be the eighth largest in the Lok Sabha with 15 MPs and the third largest in the Rajya Sabha, just behind the Congress and the BJP, with 35 MPs.

Ahead of the merger, these parties may seek the permission of the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairperson to be considered a single group in Parliament.

When the leaders of the six parties — the SP, the JD(U), the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Janata Dal (Secular), the Indian National Lok Dal and the Samajwadi Janata Party — gather at Mr. Mulayam Singh’s residence here on Wednesday, a formal announcement of the new entity — to be named, in all likelihood, the Samajwadi Janata Dal — will be made.

Mulayam to be chief

The new party’s president will be Mr. Mulayam Singh, who late last year was authorised by the six parties to conduct the negotiations, and its symbol will be the SP’s cycle and its flag the red and green one of the original Socialist Party.

For the JD(U) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the merger has come not a day too soon, as the BJP on Tuesday launched its election campaign in Bihar that goes to the polls six months from now. Indeed, so eager was RJD chief Lalu Prasad that earlier this month, he had virtually announced the merger, using the slogan Ek Jhanda, Ek Nishan (one flag, one symbol), and daring the BJP to come to Bihar.

The SP, too, is hoping for a spill-over effect in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls in 2017. Indeed, for the JD(U) and the SP, now ruling Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the merger could hold the key to retaining these States.

Those who will attend Wednesday’s meeting include Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, JD(U) president Sharad Yadav, its general secretary K. C. Tyagi, JD(S) chief and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, Mr. Lalu Prasad, SJP chief Kamal Morarka, INLD leader Dushyant Chautala and SP general secretary Ramgopal Yadav.

Wednesday’s meeting follows conversations the SP supremo has had with all the leaders, during which all key issues were resolved, Mr. Tyagi told The Hindu .