Janta Parivar Merger on Track, Assure Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad

The proposed Janta Parivar merger is on track, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad both said today. The assurance comes a day after senior Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav said the merger will not take place before the Bihar elections, scheduled for later this year.

The senior Samajwadi Party leader had also said there were technical problems with having a united party symbol, which needs to be resolved by the Election Commission first.

But the two Bihar leaders maintained that SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav was the only one authorised to take a call on this merger and the process, though time consuming, was very much on track.

"There is no question of turning back, Mulayam Singh Yadav is the leader of this new party and it is his word that counts. Such things take time and things are being worked out," said Mr Kumar in Patna today.

Mr Prasad, too, reiterated that technical issues take time to get sorted. "There is an election in Bihar and it has already been decided we (the RJD and the JDU) are going to contest this as one entity," he said.

Last month, six parties with socialist roots had announced that they were merging to form a national party headed by Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. All were once part of the Janata Dal, which disintegrated almost two decades ago.

The six parties are - the Samajwadi Party, the JD(U), Rashtriya Janata Dal, Janata Dal (Secular), the Indian National Lok Dal and the Samajwadi Janata Party.

The first big test for the Janata Parivar will be the Bihar elections, where JD(U)'s Nitish Kumar and RJD's Lalu Yadav - bitter rivals for years - will lead its charge against a BJP determined to add the state to its kitty.