Nitish Kumar in Delhi to merge Janata Parivar into 'Samajwadi Janata Party or Dal'

NEW DELHI: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will be in Delhi on Saturday after which efforts to formally merge the five parties of the erstwhile Janata Parivar into a 'Samajwadi Janata Party or Dal' will be stepped up.

According to top sources within JD(U), the announcement of the merger could happen as early as April 10. JD(U) Rajya Sabha MP KC Tyagi has already said Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav has now taken the lead in the talks and outstanding issues related to a common symbol and name for the party have been resolved.

"It is likely that the new party will be called the Samajwadi Janata Party, or Janata Dal, with Mulayam Singh Yadav as president,"he said.

He added the symbol "cycle"currently with SP, or the old Janata Dal symbol ‘wheel’, may be adopted by the new party.

"It’ll either be two wheels or one,"he added with a laugh. Mulayam Singh Yadav, too, is expected to be in Delhi over the weekend, as will be former PM Deve Gowda who heads JD(S); a representative of the Om Prakash Chautala’s INLD and RJD’s Lalu Prasad are already in Delhi.

The merger will have immediate and important consequences for the Bihar polls where the socialists are hoping that the combined might of Lalu Prasad’s ‘MY’, or Muslim-Yadav combination, along with Nitish Kumar’s Mahadalit configuration will give them the decisive edge in the polls.