The Rashtriya Lok Dal, in an obvious dig at its ally Samajwadi Party, has said that without the Congress no front can be effective in countering the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The RLD is striving hard for a Congress-led opposition front for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

“Any transformation in the outcome of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls is not possible without the Congress. The Congress too wants the RLD to align with it. Our party chief Jayant Chaudhary had met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi. There is pressure from party workers and leaders that it should go with the Congress,” said RLD’s Uttar Pradesh unit chief Ramashish Rai.

The comment by the RLD’s Uttar Pradesh unit chief Ramashish Rai ahead of the June 23 meeting of opposition parties in Patna assumes significance in light of SP president Akhilesh Yadav maintaining that seat distribution should be decided considering which alliance partner is the strongest in a particular state.

The June 23 meeting of opposition parties, called by Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar, will see anti-BJP players chalk out a strategy for the Lok Sabha polls.

“The RLD is in favour of a united opposition. It will endorse the outcome of the meeting to evolve a consensus on opposition unity. We are of the view that without taking the Congress along, no front against the BJP can take an effective shape,” Rai said.

SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said. “The BJP will lose in all the 80 Lok Sabha seats of Uttar Pradesh in the 2024 polls. For that, people should show large-heartedness and help the SP. We are already in alliance with some parties, including the RLD,”

He added, “Akhilesh Yadav will accommodate other parties which is why he spoke about large-heartedness.”

“In the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, the SP gave 105 seats to the Congress (as part of a pre-poll alliance deal). Any big party, which is capable of defeating the BJP, should help the SP in Uttar Pradesh in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls by showing a large heart,” Chaudhary added.

When asked whether the party was willing to accommodate the Congress, he said, “A decision in this regard will be taken at the June 23 meeting of opposition parties in Patna.”

Top leaders of most opposition parties, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, her Tamil Nadu counterpart MK Stalin and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal have agreed to attend the June 23 meeting.