The plan to merge six parties of the erstwhile Janata Parivar, including the ruling Janata Dal(United) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, has been gathering pace, but it may pose a threat to the Jitan Ram Manjhi government in Bihar.
With the disqualification of eight of its MLAs, the JD(U) has 107 members in the Assembly, and under the anti-defection Act, the party will need the support of 72, or two-thirds of its members, for the merger with the RJD. Earlier, the JD(U) had 115 members.
However, more than 30 JD(U) MLAs are said to be ready to cross swords with the leadership. Many of them had even voted against the party candidate in the Rajya Sabha by-election held earlier in the year.
Party sources told The Hindu that over a dozen of the disgruntled legislators are waiting for the right moment to join the BJP to contest the Assembly election next year. “If 33-35 MLAs opposed the merger, the Manjhi government will be in danger,” a ruling party MLA said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Similarly, the RJD, which has 24 MLAs, will have to get the support of 16 MLAs for the merger.
Many say it will be a tough task for party chief Lalu Prasad as more than a dozen MLAs are said to be waiting to join the BJP.
Furthermore, MLAs of both parties have started exploring the possibility of joining the BJP after its brilliant performance in the Jharkhand Assembly election.
Senior RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui has said that after the Jharkhand poll results, the sooner the merger, the better it would be for both parties. After it broke ties with the JD(U), the BJP is looking for winnable candidates to put them up in most of the constituencies where it had not contested in the 2010 elections.
With 88 members in the Assembly, the party needs the support of just 32 MLAs to form the government on its own before the polls.
Sources in the RJD and the JD(U) told The Hindu that there was a sizeable number of MLAs in both parties who were opposing the merger, fearing that they might lose their constituencies in the polls.
