JD(U) Sharad Yadav faction to start membership drive, hold internal polls

Sharad Yadav. (source: PTI photo)

The Janata Dal (United) faction led by Sharad Yadav will conduct a membership drive till December 30 and complete the process of organisational elections by March 12. A decision on this was taken at a meeting of the national council of the party at the Constitution Club on Sunday.

The meeting, chaired by acting president Chhotubhai Vasava, decided to hold the next national council session by March 12. Senior party leader Arun Kumar Shrivastav and Rajya Sabha member Ali Anwar told the media after the meeting that the new president and his team of office-bearers would be in place after the organisational elections. Former UP MLA Subhash Chandra Shrivastav was appointed the returning officer for the purpose.

Arun Kumar Shrivastav claimed that nearly 600 of the 998 members attended the national council meeting.

“At least 400 of them had registered their participation by noon,” he said, adding that many more arrived thereafter. They included 19 state presidents.

Asked how many members from Bihar turned up, Shrivastav said only 12 people, including three district presidents (since removed by the other faction led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar) had come.

Those who spoke at the meeting included Sharad Yadav, Vasava and RJD Lok Sabha member Jai Prakash Narain Yadav, who had come as an observer, but was requested by the host to speak.

When asked about Nitish and other senior leaders of the rival faction, Shrivastav said: “We resolved not to bother about those who have left the party and, therefore, there is no need to say anything about them.”

However, he said the national council put its seal on the national executive decision to declare “null and void” the organisational elections held by Aniel Hegde as the returning officer. The meeting adopted a political resolution moved by Ali Anwar and seconded by Rajya Sabha member from Kerala MP Veerendra Kumar.