Perturbed by the possibility of the Janata Dal (Secular) [JD (S)] national leadership backing the National Democratic Alliance’s candidate Droupadi Murmu for the presidential election on July 18, the Kerala unit of the Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) has postponed its proposed merger with that party in the State.
Not only did the LJD leaders from the State miss a crucial meeting with the JD (S) national president and former Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda in Bengaluru, but they also cancelled a joint meeting of the State committees of both parties in Thiruvananthapuram last week. The meeting was to chalk out the merger plans and as well as holding a rally in Kozhikode in August.
A senior party functionary of the LJD told The Hindu that both the parties had agreed for a merger after several rounds of talks and negotiations, including sharing the posts of key office-bearers. ”Right now, our leadership is having second thoughts on the unification. We had common motives for the merger. May be, we will have to start the merger process from scratch,“ he said.
