Sharad Yadav to hold massive Bihar rally on May 18
The decision of launching a new party was kept in abeyance as a court case is pending.
New Delhi: Taking on Nitish Kumar on his home turf, the new Loktantrik Janata Party, backed by rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, will hold a massive show of strength in Bihar in just a couple of months after its launch on May 18. The rally which will be a showcase of sorts for the ‘Grand Alliance’ and is likely to be attended by top leaders of the Opposition like Congress President Rahul Gandhi and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav besides leaders of the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Left.
Sources said that the new party planned to contest the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan Assembly polls scheduled to be held by the end of this year as part of the Grand Alliance led by the Congress and the launch at the Talkatora Stadium in Delhi will be followed by a huge membership drive. The target is to get 10 lakh members.
While eight-time MLA and former chief of Janata Dal (United) in Rajasthan Fateh Singh would be the president, Maharashtra leader Sushila Morale would be the secretary of the new party. Other posts like members of the National Council would be filled up after the launch.
“The decision of launching a new party was kept in abeyance as a court case is pending. However, we realised that many party workers, who did not want to go with NDA, were veering towards the Lalu Yadav-led Rashtriya Lok Dal. A recent example being of ex-Speaker Uday Narain Choudhary, who left the JD(U) recently and was likely to join the RJD,” a senior party leader said.
“In Karnataka also our candidate had to fight on Congress symbol as we did not have a party then,” he added.