The Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) in Kerala is all set to merge with its parent party, the Janata Dal (Secular) - JD(S), as approved by the JD(S) state committee on Thursday, January 19. The merged outfit will work as part of the JD(S) national committee headed by HD Deve Gowda. Both the political parties are minor allies of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala, and the merger is unlikely to have any significant impact on the state’s political equations.
After the 2021 Assembly elections, the JD(S) has two MLAs in the 140-member Assembly, with Mathew T Thomas representing Tiruvalla in Kottayam and K Krishnankutty representing Chittur in Palakkad. KP Mohanan, who won from Kuthuparamba in Kannur, is the sole MLA of the LJD. Out of the LDF’s total majority of 99 seats, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) which leads the coalition had secured 62 seats.
Discussions regarding a merger between the LJD and JD(S) had at least unofficially begun back in 2019, when LJD chief MP Veerendra Kumar was alive. It is reported that both the parties will share leadership posts, which means former minister and current MLA Mathew T Thomas is likely to become the state president of JD(S), while Veerendra Kumar's son MV Shreyams Kumar is expected to be the national secretary. Mathew T Thomas, however, told TNM that no decisions have so far been made regarding the division of leadership posts.
Shreyams Kumar, a former two-time MLA from Kalpetta in Wayanad and a former Member of the Parliament at the Rajya Sabha, is at the helm of media group Mathrubhumi as managing director, following in the footsteps of his father. Shreyams had contested the Assembly elections in 2021 from Kalpetta, but lost. In the polls, the LJD had only won one of the three sitting seats it contested.
Veerenda Kumar, a pragmatic politician who was never hesitant to switch sides, had parted ways with the LDF after not getting the Kozhikode seat in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. After this, the media baron joined the Janata Dal (United) led by Nitish Kumar, presently the Chief Minister of Bihar. In Kerala, he joined the United Democratic Front (UDF) headed by the Congress and which is at present the Opposition.
Veerendra Kumar later formed the Socialist Janata Democratic (SJD) party in 2010. Some of the JD(S) leaders like Jose Thettayil and Mathew T Thomas stayed back in the LDF even after he quit the coalition. SJD became part of the UDF ahead of the 2011 Assembly polls, and later merged with the JD (United) in 2014.
Incidentally the merger between LJD and JD(S) was on the cards ever since Veerendra Kumar and his party in Kerala quit from the Upper House in December 2017, unhappy with Nithish Kumar aligning with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It is after this that they decided to move out of the UDF too and work with the LDF.
Following this, Veerendra Kumar was given a ticket to the Upper House by the LDF here and was elected in March 2018. In December 2018, his party was made a full-fledged ally of the LDF.