Janata Party merger turns tricky since all six are regional parties, says ex-CEC SY Quraishi

NEW DELHI: The six parties in the Janata Parivar have announced their intention to merge, but haven’t yet managed to agree on a name, symbol or flag for their new party. Merging with a desire to a form a “national front” against the BJP, the new party may not get national party recognition unless they do well in Bihar and other states.

Sources close to SP chief Mulayam Singh say the merger has gone slow because there has been a realisation that the national party status to the new entity will not be an automatic thing, nor will it help to use the SP symbol, the bicycle, as a common one, without national status.

ET spoke to former CEC SY Quraishi who said if any of the six parties had been ‘nationally’ recognized, then it would have been deemed that the others had merged into this entity, keeping the national status intact. “Since all six parties (SP, JD(U), RJD, JD(S), INLD and SJP) have recognition as regional parties, the matter becomes tricky. One would have to go into a legal precedence to see under what circumstances they can get recognition as a national party,” he said.

One such circumstance is a post-Bihar poll scenario, where the strength of the performance may give the new party enough proportion of votes to qualify.

The symbol too is an issue. Sources in SP say that while the party will be happy if its own symbol of the bicycle is adopted, it would add an unforeseen complication to fighting polls if not accompanied by a national party status. “If we fight on this symbol as a regional party we have to be aware that the TDP and the Panthers Party from Jammu have the same symbol,” said a source.

Therefore while the will to merge exists among these parties, it’s the fine print that’s keeping them away.