Question mark on Janata Parivar merger as Nitish skips meet

NEW DELHI: Raising questions on the Janata Parivar merger, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today skipped a crucial meeting called to iron out the differences with RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who mooted the idea of roping in Jitan Ram Manjhi, a known Kumar detractor, in the anti-BJP alliance.

RJD supremo Lalu Prasad after a meeting of Janata Parivar in New Delhi on Friday. A Tribune photograph

Ravi S Singh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 22

Raising questions on the Janata Parivar merger, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today skipped a crucial meeting called to iron out the differences with RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who mooted the idea of roping in Jitan Ram Manjhi, a known Kumar detractor, in the anti-BJP alliance.

Nitish, who was in Delhi, sent JD-U president Sharad Yadav for talks with Lalu and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who has been designated as the leader of the proposed entity after a formal merger of six Janata Parivar outfits.

Although JD-U general secretary and MP KC Tyagi said Nitish could not attend the meeting as he had undergone an eye surgery yesterday, other leaders of the Parivar say he avoided it as he was upset with Lalu’s utterances in favour of Manjhi. Non-JD-U leaders of the Parivar said Nitish advanced the surgery as the meeting was fixed after prior consultations with him.

The RJD also accused Nitish of having always played spoilsport against it in the past.

The meeting was convened by Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and attended by JD-U chief Sharad Yadav, Danish Ali of the JD-S, RJD president Lalu Yadav and his party colleague and former Union Minister Prem Chand Gupta. No representative from the INLD and Samajwadi Janata Party attended the meeting.

Lalu had publicly invited Manjhi to join the Parivar in the process of uniting all secular parties against the BJP. Manjhi was unceremoniously ousted from the Chief Minister’s post to make way for Nitish, and also expelled from the JD-U for his defiance.

The RJD is reportedly not happy with the JD-U publicly rooting to project Nitish as the face (read CM candidate) of the Parivar in the upcoming Assembly elections in Bihar.

During the discussions, Prem Chand Gupta wondered if the Janata Parivar merger could be a reality in the backdrop of Nitish always playing negative politics against the RJD.

Gupta stressed that any talks on carrying forward the process of merger must be preceded by resolving the seat-sharing formula between the JD-U and the RJD for the Assembly elections. (With PTI inputs)