The party's formation was announced by Marandi at Hazaribagh on 24 September 2006.[2] Marandi was earlier a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, but he quit in mid-2006 because he felt he was being sidelined in the party.
Six JVM(P) MLAs on 11 Feb 2015 joined the BJP, a day after petitioning the Speaker to allow them to sit alongside the ruling BJP-led coalition members in the state Assembly. Naveen Jaiswal (Hatia), Amar Kumar Bauri (Chandankiyari), Ganesh Ganju (Simaria), Alok Kumar Chourasia (Daltonganj), Randhir Kumar Singh (Sarath) and Janki Yadav (Barkatha) joined the BJP at the Jharkhand Bhavan in New Delhi.[citation needed]