File photo: Six parties with socialist roots are planning to merge to form a national party headed by Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. (PTI)
Lalu Yadav proclaimed today that he will "sit with Nitish Kumar and sort out issues related to our merger." Apparently to ensure that task is a real challenge, he added, "I have saved the Nitish government twice in the last year... so we all need to be clear about this and about the merger too."
Lalu's pointed reminder of the favours he has extended to Mr Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar, are ominous for the merger that the leaders had announced ahead of the state election. The Janta Parivaar teams six parties, including those of Lalu and Mr Kumar, in what was intended as a dream team of socialists.
In Bihar, the joint effort would seek to keep the BJP from riding the popularity of the Prime Minister to win the election due in just months.
But the merger appears improbable now; even an alliance specific to this election is replete with complications. Sources say Lalu's determination that the alliance overlooks Mr Kumar as the chief ministerial candidate is weakening, largely because a suitable option remains undiscovered. Lalu himself is ineligible to run because of an earlier conviction in a corruption case.
Jitan Ram Manjhi, whom Mr Kumar installed as his replacement during a nine-month time-out, was expelled from their party for resisting Mr Kumar's return as Chief Minister. Lalu says Mr Manjhi should be included in the Janta Parivaar, a suggestion so outlandish that it can only have been mooted as provocation for Mr Kumar. In which case, bingo.
Lalu and Mr Kumar, as heads of rival parties in Bihar, attacked each other for years before the Janta Parivaar was created in April as a dream team of socialists. Mulayam Singh Yadav, head of the Samajwadi Party and a key constituent of the group, reportedly wants to exit because he has been advised that the gains may have been over-estimated.