JD(U) to hold meet in Delhi, may change party symbol

The Janata Dal (U) will hold its two-day national executive meet in New Delhi from December 20.

This will be the first major meeting of the party office-bearers outside the state after Bihar voters reposed their faith in the leadership of JD(U) strongman Nitish Kumar last month.

The meeting assumes significance as it will not only deliberate on its expansion plan but work out strategies to make its presence felt in other states particularly the poll-bound ones.

The meeting is also likely to take up the issue of its symbol, which, it has indicated (to the Election Commission) that it wants to change and adopt “chakra”, which was the symbol of the original Janata Dal.

When the Janata Dal was formed on October 11, 1988, on the birth anniversary of veteran socialist Jaya Prakash Narayan, its symbol was ‘chakra’.

The party had come into being after merging the various factions of the erstwhile Janata Party – the Lok Dal, Congress (S) and VP Singh’s outfit Jan Morcha. Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav were ministers when the Janata Dal-led National Front government was formed in December 1989.

Nitish, it is said, is keen to retain ‘chakra’ as the present symbol ‘arrow’ reportedly created confusion in the Bihar Assembly elections.

“The symbol of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and Shiv Sena is ‘bow and arrow’. Both the parties fielded their nominees for the Bihar polls. The similar symbol created lot of confusion and at least five of our candidates lost the election on account of this misunderstanding,” said JD(U) general secretary KC Tyagi.

Party sources said if there is some technical problem in getting the symbol, it would opt for ‘banyan tree’ or some other symbol in place of ‘arrow’. “The issue will be deliberated at the two-day conclave in New Delhi,” said Tyagi.