Last word has not been said: Nitish on Janata party merger

With the continuing logjam over Janata Parivar unification, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today sounded optimistic about coming together of the splinter parties saying "the last word has still not been said".
"Things are moving at its own speed... No last word has still been said on the merger," Kumar told reporters after a 'Janata ke Darbar mein Mukhya Mantri' programme.
He, however, did not give any timeline for something concrete happening on the issue.
The crucial Bihar elections in which both Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar wish to stop the Narendra Modi juggernaut, are scheduled in September-October this year.

Asked about the comments of different leaders including RJD President Lalu Prasad's suggestion that a merger was not possible and now talks were veering towards either an alliance between the RJD and the JD(U) or seat-sharing in the Bihar elections, Kumar said, "I do not want to include myself in making public statements on the issue and working on the target of merger."
"Things will be in place when the time for it comes," he said and repeated a couplet of legendary poet Rahim "Dheere dheere re maana dheere sub kuch hoi, Mali sichae so ghara ritu awat ful hoi (things happen slowly and gradually and despite the gardener pouring hundred earthen pots of water, fruit comes on a tree only in the season)."

The merger exercise virtually came to a standstill after Mulayam Singh Yadav was announced its head on April 15.

Merger of the Janata Parivar was not possible before the Bihar Assembly elections and any such move would now amount to signing the 'death warrant' of his own party, Ramgopal Yadav, brother of the SP chief and a member of the six-member committee to suggest on the merger modalities, had said.
In reply to a question that Lalu Prasad was insisting on roping in his detractor and former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi and was he prepared to lift the embargo on the JD(U) rebel, Kumar said, "is any application pending from anybody?"

On another question that Congress has been siding with him vis-a-vis Prasad and wants him as CM again, Kumar did not give any categorical answer and merely said they were working with Congress in "perfect coordination.