JD(U) tells rebel Sharad Yadav to join RJD after EC rejects his plea to claim party symbol

A day after the Election Commission of India rejected Sharad Yadav’s application to stake claim over Janata Dal (United)’s symbol, the ruling faction on Wednesday said that the rebel leader should join Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). “Sharad Yadav should formally join the RJD and accept the party symbol Lantern as its own without any further delay,” JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said. Neeraj said Sharad has no other option except to join RJD to survive in politics. “Now, Sharad may also lose his Rajya Sabha membership soon,” he said. Claiming that the “real” JD(U) belonged to Sharad, the faction had in August  announced  its decision to approach the Election Commission over the party’s arrow symbol. According to The Indian Express, the EC rejected on Tuesday the plea due to lack of appropriate documents of support from party legislators and office-bearers. The commission also pointed out that the application filed by Javed Raza on behalf of the Sharad Yadav-led camp was not signed by him. A copy of the order was also sent to the Nitish Kumar-led faction. [caption id=“attachment_3929737” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Sharad Yadav. PTI[/caption] On Wednesday, the party spokesperson said that Sharad had become ‘uncle’ of Lalu’s family, who have been facing action by Central Bureau of Investigation, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax department for their alleged corruption and benami property worth hundreds of crore. He said Sharad and another party rebel MP Ali Anwar were already served notices by Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah Naidu last Monday, asking them to explain their position regarding a party petition seeking their disqualification from the House. JD(U) has time and again in last two weeks said that Sharad has “ voluntarily ” quit the membership of the JD(U) by attending the RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s “Desh Bachao BJP Bhagao” rally on 27 August. However, till date, the Bihar chief minister, who is also the president of JD(U), has not expelled Sharad despite warning him that the party would act against him if he attends the RJD rally. The JD(U) in July-end split  into two factions, one led by Nitish and the other by Sharad, after the former dumped the Grand Alliance of RJD and Congress and joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form a new government. The JD(U) on 12 August had  removed  Sharad as the party’s leader in Rajya Sabha. According to JD(U) leaders, 70 MLAs, two Lok Sabha MPs and seven Rajya Sabha MPs are with Nitish-led Janata Dal(U). With inputs from PTI and IANS