Ranchi: Former Chief Minister and president of the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM), Babulal Marandi is likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on February 17 in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Sources in the BJP said Marandi met party president JP Nadda and national vice president, Om Prakash Mathur, in New Delhi on February 8 and discussed the merger.
The JVM-P has called an executive body meeting on Tuesday where a resolution to merge the party with the BJP might be passed.
“Till now there is no decision to join the BJP. Any such thing will be decided in the executive body meeting of the party,” said Marandi.
Party sources said the merger is the core agenda of the party meeting on Tuesday.
The BJP is looking forward to reviving the party’s image among the tribal community. The first non-tribal Chief Minister Raghubar Das was not accepted by the tribal community and the party had to suffer a loss in the majority of the tribal seats in the 2019 Assembly polls.
In order to make the merger smooth, the JVM has expelled it’s two legislators – Pradeep Yadav and Bandhu Tirkey – who were against it. (IANS)