KOZHIKODE: Kerala Janapaksham, a breakaway faction of the BJP, led by veteran leader K Raman Pillai, is all set to merge with the LDF constituent Janata Dal(S). A meeting of the party held in Thiruvananthapuram on January 22 reached a consensus on the merger, though there were differences among senior leaders including K Raman Pillai.The merger will be officially announced by the party officials the next week, as they got green signal from Janata Dal leaders. A meeting of the State Council of the party will be held next week and the official decision on the merger will be taken in this meeting, said a top leader of Janapaksham.Raman Pillai, former state president of BJP, floated Janapaksham in 2007 following disagreements with the state leadership of the BJP.For the last five years, the party has been giving unconditional support to the CPM-led Left Democratic Front. Some of the top leaders of the party who came from BJP and Sangh Parivar organisations had voiced their protest against the move to merge with a Left-aligned party in the last state committee meeting. “Janapaksham had extended an unconditional support to LDF candidates in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections but the front did not allow seats to the party in panchayat and Assembly polls. The position offered to Raman Pillai in the party after the merger is also a matter to be discussed,” said a state committee member of the party. However, leaders from Kozhikode, Malappuram, Kannur, Kasargod and Wayanad have said that they would join JD(S) if the state committee changes its stand. “If the state committee would take a decision different from the proposed conclusion of the last meeting we will decide our stand,” said Viswan Nanmanda, a top leader of Janapaksham in the district. Dattetraya Rao, former BJP leader and secretary of Janapaksham and many senior leaders are with us, he claimed. Janapaksham workers are planning to conduct a merger convention at Kozhikode in March on the occassion of the visit of Janata Dal supremo H D Deve Gowda to the state.JD(S) state president Mathew T Thomas and senior leader C K Nanu MLA had met Dattetraya Rao and Janapaksham workers at Kozhikode in December.“The party has not taken any final decision on the merger with Janapaksham. The discussions are going on,” said C K Nanu.
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