Sharad Yadav to move Election Commission over new party name

New Delhi: The Sharad Yadav-led rebel JD(U) faction will shortly move the Election Commission of India to be recognised as a new party. Arun Kumar Shrivastav, a former JD(U) general secretary and close aide of Mr Yadav, said they will file an application with the EC in a day or two and hold a convention after the results of the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh polls were announced on December 18.

Among the names the new party will seek for itself in its application to the EC are Samajwadi Janata Dal and Loktantrik Janata Dal. The Yadav faction had earlier announced that it will form a new party after the Gujarat polls, which it is fighting in alliance with the Congress, after its claim over the JD(U) poll symbol was rejected by the EC last month. The EC had recognised Nitish Kumar-led faction as the real JD(U) and accepted its claim over the poll symbol ‘arrow’. Mr Yadav was recently disqualified as a Rajya Sabha member after chairperson M Venkaiah Naidu agreed to his party’s plea that he had “voluntarily given up” his membership by joining a rally of Opposition parties.