In an effort to claim the opposition space from the Congress, the ‘Janata Parivar’ held its first joint meeting here on Monday.
Six splinter parties of the erstwhile Janata Dal, which had earlier decided to work together, organised a public rally at Jantar Mantar against the Modi government’s policies.
The parties also disrupted the proceedings of both the Houses of Parliament, demanding that black money stashed abroad be brought back to the country.
Though the six parties have expressed a wish to merge, Janata Parivar sources indicated that the process may take some more time. There is no decision yet on the technicalities such as the name, flag and symbol of the new party.
A senior Samajwadi Party leader told BusinessLine that as a first step, the SP and the RJD may merge. The families of the supremos of the two parties — Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad — recently entered into a marriage alliance. Lalu’s daughter Raj Lakshmi is getting married to Mulayam’s grand nephew and Lok Sabha member Tej Pratap Yadav.
“Let the SP and the RJD merge first and ally with the JD(U) in Bihar. The other formalities can be worked out later,” the senior leader added.
Former Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar reiterated the decision that the six parties will merge. “An agreement has been reached on this. Mulayam Singh has to work out the modalities. Let us take a vow now. We should contact even others. Let us make a comprehensive opposition. We should all come together. Setting aside our prejudices, we want to form a strong opposition,” Nitish told the workers of the six parties who were participating in the rally.
Reaching out to other parties, Lalu said an attempt is being made to target West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. There are no differences between him and Nitish Kumar, he stated, adding that both the parties will work together.
The leaders said Modi has forgotten the promises he had made during the campaign. The people of the country are waiting for “₹15 lakh for everyone”, which was promised with the brining back of black money from foreign havens, Mulayam said. “Today if somebody is feeling the most cheated it is the youth. When bank accounts of people under Jan Dhan Yojana were opened there was much publicity. Now it has come to fore that there is no money transaction in five crore of the total eight crore accounts under the scheme and there will be no accident benefit,” Nitish said.
Raising the pitch in the Rajya Sabha, Sharad Yadav of the JD(U) said farmers are neglected under the Modi regime.
Poll promises“You had promised incentive to farmers for their produce. Now a new thing has come... you did not say you will launch ghar wapsi (conversion to Hinduism) campaigns. Your party ministers and MPs are saying this. You did not fulfil the promises made to people. You have forgotten them. That is why this House is not functioning,” he said.
Ramgopal Yadav of the SP said the new government has not created a single job. “There are over five crore unemployed in the country. You did not create any job. Many parties are today sitting on dharna and we have given notice under Article 266 after suspension of all business to discuss this,” he said.
The Rajya Sabha got adjourned for the day after the opposition parties insisted that no business will be allowed unless the Prime Minister makes a clarification on the conversion controversy.