SP-RLD alliance is witnessing discomfort as RLD supporters believe that the party has not got its due in the alliance.
New Delhi: The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD)-Samajwadi Party (SP) alliance, which looks formidable on paper in western Uttar Pradesh, is witnessing discomfort at the ground level as RLD supporters and sympathisers believe that the party has not got its due in the seat-sharing pact. In the first phase which is scheduled on 10 February, at least on half a dozen Assembly seats, RLD leaders and supporters are unhappy and might vote against the alliance candidate, say sources.
Sources within the RLD and independent observers who cover Western UP have indicated to The Sunday Guardian that the alliance parties had an uphill task to pacify RLD supporters as on some RLD seats, even SP leaders are fighting. Many believe that it is sensing this unease on the ground that Amit Shah sent feelers to the RLD and its leader Jayant Chaudhary. Interestingly, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s top leadership has been refraining from attacking Jayant Chaudhary.
A senior RLD leader who is in the core committee of the party said on the condition of anonymity, “It is easy to make a calculation sitting in the war room by combining the vote shares of different castes and religions in an Assembly segment and draw the conclusion that we are winning, but the reality of each Assembly segment is different. Take the case of Siwalkhas seat, which is under the Baghpat Lok Sabha segment. There our leaders and supporters don’t want to vote for Ghulam Mohammad of the SP. The situation is the same in many other seats of Meerut, Baghpat and Mathura. I also believe we should have got more seats and even on some seats given to the RLD, SP leaders too are contesting. This is not sending the right message to our cadre. They wanted their own men in the seats. But I am still hopeful that in the last 2-3 days everyone will put their act together at the local level.”
Experts and observers agree that a section of RLD’s core vote bank—the Jats—thinks that RLD has not been given its due in seat sharing. In the Mathura district’s Mant Assembly, which will go to the polls in the first phase, candidates from both SP and RLD have filed their nominations.
The RLD, which was once an influential political force in western Uttar Pradesh is fighting a battle for survival, as it has performed badly in the last three elections—the 2014 general elections, 2017 Assembly elections and the 2019 general elections. The RLD’s best performance was in 2002 Assembly elections where it won 14 seats. In the 2017 Assembly elections, it won only one seat and both its main leaders the late Ajit Singh and party president Jayant Chaudhary lost the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The party carries the legacy of Chaudhary Charan Singh, the tallest Jat leader who served as India’s Prime Minister for a few months. Through the alliance with the SP, the party is trying to regain its lost ground. The farm protests in which the RLD’s core Jat voters are at the epicentre, have given the party some hope of putting on a good show in Western Uttar Pradesh this time.
The RLD had got 38 Assembly seats in the seat sharing agreement with the SP.