At RLD rally, call to revive Janata Parivar to fight BJP

The rally was attended by the leaders of various splinter groups of the old Janata Parivar, including former prime minister and JD(S) chief H D Deve Gowda, JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav and Bihar’s former chief minister Nitish Kumar.

SP supremo Mulayam Singh and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, however, gave the rally a   miss, and sent state PWD minister Shivpal Singh Yadav as the party representative, who pointed out at the rally that it was the Samajwadi Party and not the RLD which first made a demand for Bharat Ratna to Charan Singh, a farmer leader.

He also projected Samajwadi Party as being serious about issues related to farmers and said that he would ask the Chief Minister to withdraw cases against them — a demand originally made by RLD.

The call for RLD and SP joining hands was first made by JD(U) leader Nitish, who said, “The days of talking about it in suggestions or indirectly are over and it’s time for all those following Lohia and Chaudhary Charan Singh come together (to challenge the Sangh Parivar)… Shivpalji now you and Mulayamji have to take a decision.”

He told the rally, “I have been fighting Lalu Prasad (RJD chief) for 20 years in Bihar, but when the danger came, we did not delay for a moment and got united… If we get united, the country will get a direction. If you remain separate, you will keep falling.”

In his speech, Shivpal replied, “The communal forces can be taken out of the political map if we, followers of Charan Singh, come together”.

The SP and RLD in Uttar Pradesh were decimated in the Lok Sabha polls with the BJP nearly sweeping the 80 seats. However, in the byelections to 11 Assembly seats, the ruling party won eight seats. Now, Mulayam and other SP leaders believe that the party got substantial votes of the Jat community in west UP and they do not need an alliance with the RLD to secure the support of their traditional vote bank.

Sharad Yadav and Deve Gowda echoed similar sentiments, but a non-committal Shivpal has upset the calculations of Ajit Singh to establish himself as a force to reckon with.

That is perhaps why Ajit wrapped up his speech in only four minutes though he was the main speaker at the Sunday’s show.

Lalu did not attend the rally due to health conditions while a message from Harish Rawat, Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, was read out during the rally, suggesting that the Congress too has extended its support to any political combination to fight the “sampradayik party” or the BJP .