On the opening day of the three-day meeting of Samajwadi Party’s All India Workers’ Union, Yadav expressed happiness over the merger.

“Samajwadi Party is not a regional, but a pan-Indian party. Kiranmoy Nanda will also no longer remain West Bengal’s leader, but he will emerge as a national leader.”

Yadav will be in town for the next two days to participate in the Samajwadi Party’s executive committee meeting in which important decisions regarding his party’s stance about the UPA are likely to be taken.

Akhilesh Yadav, chief of the SP’s unit in UP, and Jaganmay Ojha, senior leader of West Bengal Socialist Party, were also present.

Wishing that this union becomes permanent, Ojha said, “Exploitation and the resultant huge gap between the rich and the poor in the present Indian society could have been much lessened had the Socialist Party remained intact and not been split into so many pieces. This merger raises new hopes.”

Nanda also was happy. “We have won all the four seats assigned to us in East Midnapore,” he said.