New Delhi: The apparent fear of the BJP’s rise under Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems to have pushed regional satraps to revive the old Janata Parivar after over a decade, as six regional parties came together on Thursday for a common agenda and a “wish” to merge into one political entity.
“We all have come to a consensus that we should unite, while the aim is to become one entity with the merger of political parties, which came out of the Janata Party and later the Janata Dal,” said former Bihar CM and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar, briefing reporters on the outcome of the discussions among the Samajwadi Party, JD(U), RJD, JD(S), INLD and Samajwadi Janata Party at SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav’s residence.
The six parties have decided to have a common stand in the coming Winter Session of the Parliament on key bills, including the Land Acquisition and Insurance Bills.
“We have decided we will take up the issues of black money, unemployment and farmers’ concerns and corner the NDA government for not delivering on promises made during the Lok Sabha elections,” said Mr Kumar.
The meeting took place apparently on the initiative of the SP chief, and was attended by Sharad Yadav, Lalu Prasad Yadav, H.D. Deve Gowda, Kamal Morarka (Samajwadi Janata Party), and Dushyant Choutala (INLD).
The Janata Party, that was formed under the guidance of Jayprakash Narayan in 1977 when the Emergency was over, had split by 1980 and later emerged in 1989 under the late V.P. Singh as Janata Dal, only to give birth later to several other political parties.
