Caught in a fix after the Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) merged with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) at the national level, its Kerala unit is weighing up multiple options before taking a final decision to float a new political entity or amalgamate with any socialist party.
Senior functionaries told The Hindu that the State committee and the State council of the party would meet in Kozhikode in the first week of April to chalk out a political strategy to stay relevant in national politics. During the interim period, however, the State unit would remain as an independent political party.
The State leadership viewed the merger as an arbitrarily decision taken by the Central leaders ignoring all procedures. Technically, the merger will not disqualify its lone LJD legislator, K. P. Mohanan, or about 100 elected members in three-tier local- and civic bodies.
Party sources said that a section of leaders still yearned the State LJD unit to merger with the Janata Dal (Secular) which the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [ CPI-M] had mooted even before the Assembly polls last year. Nevertheless, several rounds of talks held between the leaders of the LJD and the JD(S) in this regard proved futile.
Once again, the State JD(S) has signalled positively to the merger plans as its leadership felt that the unification of the two parties could strengthen the party in Kerala.
However, the decision of JD(S) national president H. D. Deve Gowda would be final and binding especially in sharing the posts of office-bearers including that of the State president following the merger. Previously, he was reluctant to offer the post of president to the LJD.
Perhaps no political party in State has lived through a change in name, constitution or flag in the past decade. It split from the JD(S) to form the Socialist Janata (Democratic), then merged with Janata Dal (United) and later became the LJD. Incidentally, inconsistency was also seen in switching the two dominant coalitions — the Congress-led United Democratic Front and the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front.
Another option before the party leadership is a merger with Samajwadi Party (SP), based in Uttar Pradesh. This so-called socialist party led by Akhilesh Yadav had put up a pretty good show though it lost in the end to the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Assembly polls this month.
