MERGE - Central News Hub

Sharad Yadav all set to merge LJD with RJD

The LJD-RJD merger might be a prelude to the RJD nominating Sharad to the Rajya Sabha in the Upper House biennial polls slated for June…reports Asian Lite News

Veteran socialist leader and former Union minister Sharad Yadav, 74, is all set to merge his Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) with the Lalu Prasad Yadav-headed Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Sunday. Top RJD leader and Bihar’s Leader of the Opposition (LoP), Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, will be present at this merger function to be held at Sharad’s residence in Delhi.

Since its inception in May 2018, the LJD never fought any election, with Sharad himself contesting, unsuccessfully, from Madhepura in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on the RJD ticket. In the 2020 Bihar Assembly polls, Sharad’s daughter Suhashini Yadav contested unsuccessfully from Bihariganj seat as a Congress candidate.

Announcing his decision to merge his party with his friend-turned-rival-turned-friend Lalu’s party, Sharad has said this will be part of his efforts to bring together various splinter outfits of the erstwhile Janata Dal. “To establish a strong Opposition in the country is the need of the hour. I have been working in this direction for a long time to unite breakaway parties of the erstwhile Janata Dal as well as other like-minded parties. Hence, I have decided to merge my party LJD with the RJD,” he tweeted on Wednesday.

Tejashwi, who has been at the helm of the RJD following the incarceration of his father Lalu Prasad in the fifth fodder scam case, has called Sharad a “father-figure and socialist icon”. “Everyone knows the importance of veteran socialist Sharad Yadav in Indian politics. He is a father figure and would guide us,” he had recently said in Patna.

“The merger of LJD with RJD is not just symbolic,” said RJD national spokesperson Subodh Mehta. “As Sharad Yadav ji rightly pointed out that the merger would be the first step towards the Opposition unity. Sharad Yadav has been a stalwart who commands respect from across political divides. RJD would gain a lot from his experience.”

It is however another matter that this merger had been on the cards for a long time. The LJD’s founder leaders like Sharad and ex-MP Ali Anwar had been in the political wilderness over the last several years, with their party failing to make any headway into Bihar or any state. Sharad himself is not known to have a mass base beyond Madhepura, a constituency that he represented several times in the Lok Sabha.

For the RJD, Sharad Yadav’s importance stems from not only his political stature but also the fact that the former Janata Dal (United) leader had taken on his then party colleague and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over his decision to return to the BJP-led NDA fold in 2017. Sharad had opposed Nitish’s move and had to pay for his resistance by losing his Rajya Sabha seat midway.

The LJD-RJD merger might be a prelude to the RJD nominating Sharad to the Rajya Sabha in the Upper House biennial polls slated for June. Though there is no official word so far from either camp in this regard, there has been a buzz in political circles about it.

The merger will also mark the Sharad-Lalu relationship coming full circle. As the then Choudhary Devi Lal aide, Sharad had been instrumental in the Janata Dal camp in the selection of Lalu Prasad as the CM through an internal party contest after the 1990 Bihar elections, when the then Prime Minister VP Singh had been backing the candidature of Ram Sunder Das for the post. Lalu had won that contest involving him, Das and Raghunath Jha by three votes.

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Sony-Zee merger on track

SPNI has been present in India since 1995. But the network has not had a smooth run to either monetise its operations or expand it further from the present 26 TV channels, a film production and distribution unit and the widely-viewed streaming platform, SonyLIV…reports Asian Lite News.

Financially troubled Zee Entertainment Enterprises’ merger plan with Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) will hinge on what decision the shareholders take on the proposed move, but the current ZEEL management is confident that the proposal would sail through on account of the value it brings to the existing operations.

Speaking to IANS, R. Gopalan, Chairman, ZEEL, s`hown by the share price movement seen on the bourses.

“The value of the merged entity and the immense synergies drawn between both the organisations will not only help businesses grow, but will also enable the shareholders to benefit from its future successes. As per legal and regulatory guidelines, the proposal will be presented to the shareholders of ZEEL for their approval at the requisite time,” Gopalan said.

Asked whether ZEEL’s two of the largest shareholders – Invesco Developing Markets Fund and OFI Global China Fund, which have indicated no confidence on the current management of the company and have called for an EGM to oust the existing board members — could derail the current merger process, Gopalan said that “unlikely to happen”.

“The shareholders would see what value the current management is bringing. If things are only getting better for the company, I don’t see why the merger process gets rejected,” he said, clarifying that the call for an EGM by Invesco and OFI Global China and the merger plan are two separate issues, where the shareholders would take a call.

“Even Sony has reposed faith in the current management of ZEEL and has accordingly agreed to the five-year tenure of Punit Goenka as the MD in the merged entity. But Invesco and others want to remove the same team. It would be seen by all,” said Gopalan.

ZEEL shares jumped 10 per cent to Rs 281.20 after the company said its board has approved the merger between the firm and Sony Pictures Networks India.

The board of ZEEL has provided in-principle approval to the merger that would also see SPNI infusing growth capital of about $1.575 billion into the new merged entity for use in pursuing other growth opportunities.

The merger is in line with ZEEL’s strategy of achieving higher growth and profitability as a leading media and entertainment company across South Asia.

The merger would not have come at a more opportune time for both the entities which were scurrying for newer initiatives to stay relevant in the highly-competitive market with wide scale transformation in Indian television landscape with increasing penetration of broadband services and regular launches of streaming video platforms.

ZEEL, on the other hand, has been fighting worsening financial conditions with its debt shooting up. The entity operates 66 linear television channels across 171 countries and is attempting to build the reach of its streaming platform, Zee5, around the world.

In 2019, Essel (parent of Zee) brought in financial advisers Goldman Sachs to see whether the owners could sell their stake in ZEEL. Sony and Essel held talks on a possible merger or buyout of operations in 2019 as well, but the talks could not reach any degree of finality.

Sony-Zee merger on track (IANS)

Essel is also understood to have held talks with James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems and Comcast, but it resisted selling the stake to a business rival.

In 2019, an agreement was reached to sell 16.5 per cent stake in ZEEL to US investment group Invesco Oppenheimer Developing Markets Fund that is currently running a battle with the existing ZEEL management and has called for an EGM to remove them over reported violation of corporate governance norms.

The merger will try to correct some of these anomalies that would also see rejig of few channels, while further sharpening the entities streaming services.

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