Two celebrations over the next few days, one political and the other personal, will once again kick-start the process of merger of six constituents of the Janata Parivar, put on hold for almost a month because of the tussle within the Janata Dal(U).
Leaders of the Janata Parivar will be in Patna on Sunday for the swearing-in of Nitish Kumar as Bihar Chief Minister, marking the end of the crisis in the JD(U). They will then move to Delhi to attend the wedding of the season, one that will unite the families of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad on February 26, when young SP MP Tej Pratap Yadav weds Raj Lakshmi Yadav.
Janata Parivar sources said that after these two events and the Union Budget on February 28, the merger process would gain momentum in March. The leaders of all six parties — the JD(U), the RJD, the SP, the Indian National Lok Dal, the Janata Dal(S) and the Samajwadi Janata Party — will be there.
With the Bihar Assembly elections, the first electoral challenge for the Janata Parivar, scheduled for later this year, Mr. Kumar as the State’s Chief Minister will take the lead in accelerating the unity moves, sources said.
By inviting a slew of serving and former non-BJP Chief Ministers from the eastern region to his swearing-in, Mr. Kumar, JD(U) sources said, intends to push Prime Minister Narendra Modi to act on his promise of greater cooperative federalism.
“Nitish does not intend to get bogged down in the secular-communal debate,” a senior JD(U) leader said. “Instead, he will concentrate on good governance and the demand for more power to the States, with the neglect of the eastern part of India by the Centre in sharp focus.”
To this end, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and former Jharkhand Chief Minister Babulal Marandi have been invited to the swearing-in — the party is also in touch with the Biju Janata Dal, and hopes to persuade it to join in the clarion call for “justice for the east”.
And the fact that Mr. Kumar has invited Mr. Gogoi and Congress general secretary in charge of Bihar C.P. Joshi, too, suggests that he would like to continue with the JD(U)-RJD-Congress experiment that he had tried last year for the Assembly by-elections, in which this combine had won six of 10 seats.
When the merger proposal was first mooted last November, the Janata Parivar had hoped to complete all the formalities before the Budget session — that has not happened, but with the conditions once again created for it, its members are all heaving a sigh of relief.
The conclusion of the JD(U) crisis has come not a day too soon, with the Budget session of Parliament starting on Monday. With Mr. Kumar back as Chief Minister, the JD(U) and the rest of the Janata Parivar will once again be able to take on the Modi government on the floor of Parliament with great vigour.
The Janata experiment: From The Hindu archives
October 21, 2014
>Janata Parivar losing its touch with Mandal politics
Finishes way behind in Haryana as the BJP outplays it in social engineering
October 2, 2014
>Signs of Janata Parivar taking shape
Though not a Third Front yet, there are signs that the Janata Parivar — and some of its old friends — shaken out of its lethargy by this year’s general election results, is tentatively working towards creating an anti-BJP platform.
August 21, 2010
>JD(S) all set to lure back Janata Parivar members
February 6, 2007
>Gowda blamed for breaking Janata Parivar
President of the Karnataka unit of the Janata Dal (U) B. Somashekar said that Janata Dal (S) president H.D. Deve Gowda, who was primarily responsible for the division of the Janata Parivar has no moral right to talk about uniting the Janata Parivar once again.
January 29, 2007
>JD(S) to work for unification of Janata Parivar: Deve Gowda
“I am willing to shed my ego, if any, and even step down from the presidentship of the party... ”
May 6, 2006
>Sharad Yadav vows to unite Janata Parivar
President of the Janata Dal (United) and former Union Minister Sharad Yadav said that he would make efforts to unite splinter groups of the Janata Dal, including the Janata Dal (Secular) headed by H.D. Deve Gowda.
April 14, 2004
>CPI(M) accuses Congress, BJP of keeping Janata Parivar divided
February 25, 2004
>Janata Parivar will come together: Swamy
Janata Party president, Subramanian Swamy, said that the decision of the All-India Progressive Janata Dal (AIPJD) to contest the elections on the JP symbol was the beginning of the coming together of the Janata Parivar to "revive the spirit of 1977 once again."
July 4, 2003
>JD(S), JD(U) agree to merge ‘unconditionally’
In a significant political development in Hassan, the leaders of the Janata Dal (Secular) and the JD (United) agreed to merge their parties at the Karnataka level.
January 4, 2003
>Pawar optimistic on merger of Janata Dal factions
The President of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and former Maharashtra Chief Minister, Sharad Pawar, has said that the consolidation of a third front was the need of the hour in the light of the poll outcome in Gujarat and the Congress's outlook in the recent elections.
December 1, 2001
>Efforts on to unite Janata ‘parivar’
Efforts to reunite various factions of the Janata Parivar — the Samata Party, the Janata Dal (United) and the Lok Janshakti — aligned with the National Democratic Alliance, have been intensified with an eye on the elections to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly.
January 8, 2001
>Janata parivar: Another split
The Samata Party, yet another splinter group that emerged out of the grand alliance of non-Congress forces — the Janata experiment — has split once again.
