Janata Parivar to meet on Sunday; merger announcement likely

NEW DELHI: The six parties of the erstwhile Janata Parivar could announce their decision to merge into one on Sunday following a meeting in which the name of the new political entity and its symbol will be decided.

The new socialist entity will have a ' Samajwadi' tag, said sources in JD-U.

"All the leaders of the Janata Parivar constituents will meet at Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's residence on April 5, where the name of the new party, its symbol and programmes will be decided," sources said.

The meeting is expected to be attended by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, JD-U chief Sharad Yadav, RJD President Lalu Prasad and representatives from Indian National Lok Dal and Samajwadi Janata Party.

Mulayam, whose SP has the largest number of MPs among the parties which have planned the proposed merger, will be the chairman of the new umbrella entity.

The April 5 meeting will decide as to what would be the election symbol of the new entity. Currently each of the six constituents of the erstwhile Janata Parivar has a separate symbol.

The wheel symbol of Janata Dal was frozen in 1999 as the party was split into JD-U led by Sharad Yadav and JD-S under HD Deve Gowda when the former decided to join the then NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpyee. The two parties were then allotted separate symbols.

Sources said what while the new party's name could be either Samajwadi Janata Party or Samajwadi Janata Dal, the party is actively considering the wheel symbol as well as the cycle, which is currently the SP party symbol.