Mulayam meets JD(U), RJD leaders; Merger on track: Nitish

New Delhi: The merger of Janata Parivar offshoots was on track, JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar on Saturday asserted after a meeting with Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav where RJD President Lalu Prasad was also present to discuss issues like flag and symbol of the proposed outfit.

Emerging after the meeting, also attended by JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, Nitish dismissed speculation that their grand plan to take on BJP with the merger has gone awry. We had earlier taken a decision about merging our parties and Mulayam Singh ji was authorised to take the proposal forward. We sat together today in this regard. He will speak to Deve Gowda ji and INLD leaders and we will have a formal meeting, Kumar said, noting their meeting today was informal.
Gowda is JD(S) President. They also deliberated over the contours of their likely joint protests against the Narendra Modi government's ordinance raj, Kumar said, but no date was finalised. There are suggestions that JD(U) and RJD may merge before the grand merger of five parties as a prolonged delay may be detrimental to their interest in Bihar which faces polls later this year, much ahead of SP-ruled UP which is scheduled to go to elections in 2017.
 JD(U) is in power in Bihar with RJD's support and they face a strong challenge from BJP which routed both these parties in Lok Sabha election. JD(U) and RJD had fought Lok Sabha polls separately and joined hands following the drubbing. Prasad said the SP chief will take a decision on their merger soon and attacked the BJP government over its unfulfilled promises and accused it of cheating people.
JD(U) President Sharad Yadav dismissed reports that his party and RJD are set to remove Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, who was handpicked by Kumar but has embarrassed the party with his controversial statements, saying it was not on their agenda. He also took a dig at the Modi's rally in Ramlila Ground today, saying it was for the first time that chairs were used to seat audience in that small place, suggesting that the crowd in the meeting was not much.