Amid speculation that Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) has forged an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh for the 2024 Lok Sabha election, party supremo Jayant Chaudhary on Friday confirmed the same, suggesting that Modi government's decision to confer Bharat Ratna to late prominent Jat leader and his grandfather Charan Singh has left him with no choice but to accept the allegiance.
As per the seat sharing agreement, the RLD will contest two Lok Sabha seats, Baghpat and Bijnor, and has also been promised a Rajya Sabha seat, reports said.
While Jayant Chaudhary's statement confirmed the RLD-BJP tie-up, a formal announcement of the alliance will be made in the next two-three days, an indiatoday.in report said.
The RLD's core vote bank is the Jat population. The Lok Sabha constituencies where there is a sizeable Jat population are Muzaffarnagar, Kairana, Bijnor, Mathura, Baghpat, Amroha and Meerut. These could be the seats on which the RLD is likely to contest.
PM Modi on Friday announced that former prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh, a prominent Jat leader, will be conferred Bharat Ratna.
"Today is a big day for the country and an emotional moment for me. I thank the President, Indian government and especially PM Modi, because this decision is a part of his vision. Awarding Chaudhary Charan Singh with Bharat Ratna has sent a big message across the country," RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary said told media on Friday.
The development comes as a fresh jolt to the opposition bloc INDIA where parties have been struggling to come to agreements on seats for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday said he hoped that Jayant Chaudhary will not weaken the struggle going on for the "khush-haali' (prosperity) of Uttar Pradesh. SP leader Shivpal Yadav had also said that Jayant was not going anywhere
"The BJP is doing the work of creating confusion. He [Jayant] is not going anywhere. He will remain with the INDIA bloc with full strength and will do the work of defeating the BJP," SP leader Shivpal Yadav had said.
The RLD and the SP announced their alliance for the Lok Sabha polls on January 19 with the former stating that the latter will leave seven seats in western Uttar Pradesh for its nominees.
The SP president and the RLD chief announced the tie-up on social media for the general elections later this year.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls also, the RLD was part of the SP-BSP alliance. The RLD had got Mathura, Baghpat and Muzaffarnagar seats but it lost on all the three seats while the SP and the BSP had won five seats and 10 seats respectively.
