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JD leader calls for merger with RJD

Janata Dal general secretary Wasim Ahmed Friday urged all breakaway JD groups to merge with the Rashtriya Janata Dal.

Laloo Prasad Yadav would be the strengthened outfit's president, he added, and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda its working president.

In a statement on the eve of the JD political affairs committee meeting to discuss the party's poll strategy, Ahmed said the merger would give the RJD a lead in forming a third front.

Expressing concern over the ''looming threat of yet another split'' in the JD in the wake of the conflicting postures adopted by its senior leaders for poll tie-ups, he said the merger would give a crushing blow to those opposed to a third front.

''The Janata Dal is in a serious crisis,'' Ahmed said.

Karnataka Chief Minister J H Patel has favoured a tie-up with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance for the Lok Sabha and assembly polls in the state, while Deve Gowda has maintained equidistance from the Congress and the BJP.

Senior JD leader Ram Vilas Paswan, for his part, showed a strong aversion to the RJD and the Congress in Bihar.

UNI

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