KOCHI: Heralding another chapter in the unification of socialist parties in the country, Socialist Janata (Democratic), a constituent of the UDF, and Janata Dal (United) will work in tandem, prior to a merger.
The decision was announced at a joint press conference called by JDU leader Sharad Yadav and SJD leader M P Veerendra Kumar here on Sunday.
“Soon, the SJD will merge with the JDU. The announcement will be made in Kerala, and the leaders of both the parties will participate,” said Yadav.
He said he expected the experience of a veteran like Veerendra Kumar, who brushed shoulders with many stalwarts in socialist parties, to benefit the party in the future. “The realignment of socialist and secular parties is the need of the hour, and the merger will be the beginning of the same,” said Veerendra Kumar.
“The talks about cooperation between the parties had started even before the Lok Sabha election. However, the political scenario has undergone a rapid change. The need of the hour is to strengthen the secular democratic forces in the country, and to ensure cooperation among them. This is a reunion of old comrades, not a merger in fact,” said Veerendra Kumar.
When asked about a possible cooperation with the JDS, Sarad Yadav said that the party was open to everyone.
He further clarified that decisions regarding the party in the State would be taken by Veerendra Kumar. However, when asked the same question to the SJD leader, he said that there were no such talks.
A section of the Janata Dal(Secular), led by Veerendra Kumar, had aligned with the United Democratic Front (UDF) and had launched the SJD on August 7, 2010. The party’s relationship with the LDF had strained after the Left Front denied it the Kozhikode Lok Sabha constituency in the 2009. During the 2011 Assembly elections, the SJD led by Veerendra Kumar, then a constituent of the UDF, could win only two of the six seats it contested. Meanwhile, the JDS led by Mathew T Thomas, under the LDF, won four out the five seats it contested.
Later, some prominent leaders and workers, including K Krishnankutty and N K Premnath, returned to the JDS in February 2014. Though the JDS and the SJD had fought the Lok Sabha election by fielding their State presidents both of them lost, at Kottayam and Palakkad, respectively.
The Janata Dal (United), the ruling party in Bihar, had walked out of a 17-year-old alliance with the BJP, in protest against the ascension of Narendra Modi as head of the BJP’s election campaign committee.