JANATA DAL IS RE-BORN

NEW DELHI: The birth of the old Janata Dal has finally been forged after three long meetings, and a political will demonstrated by the more contentious leaders Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Yadav prodded and supported by Janata Dal(U)’s Nitish Kumar.

Mulayam Singh will be the chairperson of the ‘parivar’ although Kumar is in all likelihood going to be the ‘face’ of the conglomeration that is now confident of bringing all erstwhile Janata Dal breakaway factions, individuals and others into its fold. Kumar was clear when he told reporters after the meeting that "Mulayam Singh Yadav has been authorized to take steps to unite parties, hold discussions."

The new entity will be called the Samajwadi Janata Dal. The meeting was attended by leaders of RJD, JD(U), INLD, Samajwadi Party.

The Left is not part of this initiative in what is a first in recent years with the CPI(M) involved in its own introspection before the Party Congress next year, with a decision now to work for Left unity and solidarity. The Congress party is also watching from a distance, more so as its Bihar ally Lalu Prasad seems to have deserted it for forging links with his former colleagues.

The constituent leaders do not hide the fact that they came together because of the drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections. As JD(U)’s KC Tyagi told The Citizen, “we were decimated, and if we have to be effective in our fight we have to be united.” The elections in Bihar next year are a catalyst as are of Uttar Pradesh in 2016. The political parties are determined to keep the BJP out of Bihar, although larger coalitions with the Left and the Congress will have to be formed to ensure this. But as Tyagi said it is too early for all this at the moment.

In other words the unity has to hold, more so as the new Socialist Janata Dal comprises many of the leaders who were responsible for the breakup of the Janata Dal itself. But that the new entity means business is clear from its first decision to hold a dharna on December 22 in Delhi against the government and its failure to move convincingly forward on the issue of black money and the promises made to the farmers.

The leaders are quite happy with the outcome of the third meeting and are confident that the new entity will attract “a lot of former colleagues who were all waiting for this to happen.” The strength in the Lok Sabha is decimated ---five in the Samajwadi party and just two MPs in the JD(U)---but they will have about 30 MPs in the Rajya Sabha. Besides two of the constituents are in power in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar still, and two others have a sizeable presence in Karnataka and Haryana.

The new party is optimistic of coming together with the Biju Janata Dal and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik in the next stage of its expansion. Sources said that they had received encouraging signals and that Patnaik, also being part of the old Janata Dal parivar, could be persuaded in time to merge or at least reach a close understanding with the Samajwadi Janata Dal.