Patna, Dec. 17: RJD leaders are set to 'return to power'.

The imminent JDU-RJD merger will pave the way for inclusion of RJD MLAs in the Jitan Ram Manjhi government. 'The pace of merger is moving fast,' RJD state president Ram Chandra Purbey said on Wednesday.

He, however, said the immediate priority for the parties was the success of a Mahadharna called in Delhi on December 22. State JDU president Bashishtha Narayan Singh has already hinted at RJD leaders joining the government. The allies would 'run the government jointly', he had said.

Ever since Nitish Kumar snapped ties with the BJP, the JDU government has been surviving with support from Independents, Congress and CPI MLAs and 'outside support' of the RJD to 'keep communal powers out of power'.

'However, with the JDU-RJD merger calculations will change. The new, united party will enjoy a comfortable 135-seat majority in the Assembly and the government will no longer have to depend on others for survival,' a senior RJD government official said.

There is talk that a senior RJD leader might be offered the post of deputy chief minister and the party also get four or five important portfolios. The name of RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui is being strongly taken in political circles. He has vast experience as a minister during the Lalu-Rabri era and is a highly respected Muslim face in Bihar politics. Ironically, just before the Lok Sabha elections, when Speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary notified 13 RJDMLAs, who broke up from Lalu's party, as 'unattached' there was speculation Siddiqui was being offered the post of deputy chief minister if he joined the group. But Siddiqui remained in the Lalu camp.

There was even talk of the post of deputy chief minister going to Rabri Devi, but RJD leaders opposed it on the ground that she had already been chief minister.

Induction of RJD MLAs into the ministry could also mean removal of some existing ministers. 'Portfolios are yet to be finalised but we would like those that can make an impact,' said a senior RJD leader. Assembly Speaker and chairman of the state legislative council are likely to notify merger of the parties inside the House.

But a section of RJD leaders do not want its leaders in the ministry. 'Its an election year. It will send the wrong message that we have joined for the sake of power,' said another senior party leader, recalling how Congress MLAs joined the Rabri ministry after, and not before, the 2000 Assembly polls. 'The decline of the Congress got even faster after that,' he said.