THRISSUR: As a part of the efforts of various constituents of the erstwhile Janata Parivar to form a broad socialist alliance at the national level, M P Veerendrakumar’s Socialist Janata (Democratic) merged with the JD(U) on Sunday.
While JD(U) president Sharad Yadav inaugurated the merger meeting held at Thekkinkkad Maidan here, former Bihar Chief Minister and party leader Nitish Kumar delivered the keynote address at the function.
The leaders who spoke at the meeting said all Janata Parivar parties should join hands to “defend secular values”, alleging that the BJP’s divisive politics was a threat to the country’s secular fabric.
“Those who are planning to install the statue of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin are a challenge to the nation. Even Union ministers are using provocative language to divide the people on communal lines,” Nitish said.
Veerendrakumar will lead the JD(U)’s state unit. As many as 25,000 Socialist Janata Democratic party workers from across the state attended the meeting.
Lalu Prasad‘s RJD had allied with the JD(U) in the Assembly byelections in Bihar earlier this year and yielded good results.
JD(U) leaders had earlier said Mulayam Singh Yadav’s SP, H D Deve Gowda’s JD(S) in Karnataka and Om Prakash Chautala’s Indian National Lok Dal in Haryana would become part of the broad alliance.
Meanwhile, Mathew T Thomas’ Janata Dal (Secular), which is part of the LDF, hasn’t shown any interest to join the alliance envisaged by other socialist parties.