A day after five major parties agreed to go for local elections on 14 May with or without Madhes-based parties, six fringe parties from the Tarai announced unification on Thursday. Called the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the new party has avoided using words like ‘Madhes’ or ‘Tarai’ in its name – indicating that it wants a national rather than regional identity.
On Wednesday, while Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal was asking five major parties if local elections could be held in two rounds to try to persuade Madhesi parties to participate, across town six Tarai-centric parties were discussing who would lead their unified party.
Dahal backed off after NC and UML leaders argued that there was no guarantee that Madhesi parties would participate in polls even in the second round. Madhesi parties, for their part, could not agree on a leader.
With 23 seats in Parliament, the RJD is now the fifth largest party – a position previously enjoyed by Bijaya Gachhadar’s party that recently dropped the word ‘Madhes’ from its new name. Upendra Yadav is not part of this party, but has also cut ‘Madhes’ from its name, and is likely to merge with Baburam Bhattarai’s New Force.