NEW DELHI: Premier Chandra Shekhars Janata Dal (S) and the Janata Party formally merged Wednesday to form a new party the “Samajvadi Janata Party” (SIP).

The new party would contest next month’s elections on the reserved symbol of the Janata Party “Chakra Haldar” (a farmer with a plough inside a wheel).

This decision was taken at a meeting of the seven-member apex committee of the Janata Dal (S) Tuesday night at the residence of party president Devi Lal.

Besides Devi Lal the meeting was attended by prime minister Chandra Shekhar Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav president of erstwhile Janata Party Dr Subramanian Swamy and Om Prakash Chautala.

The decision of merger was in deference to the decision of the January 1991 Ballia convention of the JD (S). Necessary legal formalities will be completed before the election commission by April 19 the first day of nominations Dr Swamy said in a statement.

Dr Swamy said the election committee of the Kerala unit of SJP has been constituted with Thomas Kuthiravattom (convenor) M M Thomas N Hariharan C M Sundaram S K Madhavan K T Joseph and Dr G P C Nayar.

He said the election committee will meet in Emakulam on April 20 to finalize the state candidate’s lists for the party high commands clearance.

The Tamil Nadu SJP election committee will meet in Madras on Thursday to finalize the states list of candidates. Dr Swamy who is leaving for Madras Wednesday night will attend this meeting the statement said.

Article extracted from this publication >> April 26, 1991