With Aim To Unite Non-BJP Forces, JD(U) Rebel Sharad Yadav To Launch New Party

New Delhi: Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav is all set to start fresh innings in politics. Yadav,72, will be headlining the foundation conference of a new party, Loktantrik Janata Dal, which will be attended by several other leaders at Talkatora Stadium here on Friday.

Yadav will be the mentor and guide at the party and not an official member since his legal claim to represent the JD(U) was still sub judice. Senior leader Arun Srivastava said that the party expects close to 8,000 people to be present at the venue from various parts of the country.

According to Srivastava, the LDJ aims to introduce a new brand of politics of socialism, pluralist secularism and progressivism, with special attention to farmers, workers, weaker and marginalised sections. One of the objectives of the party is to unite all non-BJP, non-communal forces together. A leader privy to the development said that talks of merger were already on the radar with a few parties.

Many smaller outfits, including activists, have been invited to join the party and the majority of them are from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat. “The outcome of these talks is to be seen, but many organisations have been asked to merge, including Dalit organisations working at the grassroots level,” the source added.

The JD(U) in July last year split into two factions, one led by Nitish Kumar and the other by Sharad Yadav, after the Bihar Chief Minister dumped the Grand Alliance and embraced the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form a new government. The JD(U) on August 12, 2017, removed Sharad Yadav as the party's leader in the Rajya Sabha. A few days later, Yadav and his faction, which includes Srivastava, Javed Raza, Ali Anwar Ansari among others, went to the Election Commission staking claim to the JD(U) election symbol, the arrow. The Commission rejected the application a month later saying that the Nitish Kumar led faction was the “real JD(U)”.

In December the same year, Rajya Sabha chairman and Vice President Venkaiah Naidu cancelled the RS memberships of Yadav and Ansari. Yadav moved the High Court and sought the setting aside of his disqualification from the Rajya Sabha.