JVM-P meet over ‘merger’ with BJP today

RANCHI: The JVM-P central committee will meet on Tuesday to decide its possible merger with BJP. Party president Babulal Marandi had initiated the merger bid and expelled two of his MLAs, Pradeep Yadav and Bandhu Tirkey, opposed to the move. JVM-P sources said Marandi was in Delhi recently and met top BJP leaders to finalise the merger. JVM-P chief general secretary Abhay Singh said, “The central committee will meet at a venue in Morhabadi and discuss various crucial issues which will include the party’s future.”
A senior JVM-P functionary said, “The meeting will focus on the proposal to merge JVM-P into BJP.The proposal will have to get support of two-thirds of the central committee members to be considered a unanimous decision. All other formalities will be completed after the proposal is passed.”
JVM-P’s 151 central committee members and other senior members, who will be special invitees, are expected to attend the meeting. Party sources said all central committee members in a recent meeting have already decided that they are with Marandi and are ready to throw their weight behind every decision he takes.
Meanwhile, supporters of Yadav and Tirkey are likely to break away from the party and side with the two expelled MLAs. Yadav refused to comment on the development. He said, “I do not wish to comment on any aspect of JVM-P now. I will remain an MLA and continue to work for the masses.”
The Poriyahat MLA was also non-committal on whether he will remain an independent MLA like Tirkey or challenge his expulsion from JVM-P. “Everything about my status will be clear in two days ,” he said. On the day of Yadav’s expulsion, Tirkey had categorically said, “We will join Congress very soon at an event that will be attended by bigwigs of the grand old party.”
Though BJP is yet to publicly comment on Marandi’s merger bid, the saffron party has indicated that the merger will happen soon. BJP sources said the party’s organisational secretary, Dharampal, left for Delhi on Monday to chalk out modalities of the merger with the party high command.
State BJP spokesperson Pratul Sahdeo said, “Babulalji is a respected and senior politician of the state. He was the first chief minister of Jharkhand and has excellent organisational skills with a huge support base. Whatever decision he and his party take will be considered by our central leaders and the state unit will be informed accordingly.”