Ahead of the conclave of opposition parties at Bengaluru on July 14, Rashtriya Lok Dal has called off its alliance with the Samajwadi Party.

RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary had skipped the Patna conclave of the opposition parties on June 23 while SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had attended it.

The RLD had entered into alliance with the SP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election and they had together contested the 2022 UP assembly polls. The SP has, however, not responded to the RLD statement on alliance.

RLD state president Ramashish Rai said that his party would contest 12 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

“We have considerable presence on these 12 seats and would like to contest them. We gave up our seats in the last assembly elections and as a result, we lost our state party status,” Ramashish Rai said. He said the RLD would claim 12 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

He said the party’s vote base had expanded and RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary was working hard to regain lost ground.

The RLD, according to sources, is also unhappy with the anti-Congress posture of the SP.

The growing differences between the two parties have become a major concern as it could potentially impact the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh. If the two parties go their separate ways, it could prove advantageous for the Bharatiya Janata Party in western Uttar Pradesh. Both parties may contest the elections independently.

In the 2022 assembly elections, the SP and RLD fought together, but they failed to prevent the BJP’s return to power in Uttar Pradesh. The SP-RLD alliance fell short of expectations, winning only a little over 100 seats. The BJP secured 255 seats and formed the government once again under the leadership of Yogi Adityanath. The SP provided 33 seats to the RLD, but it could only win eight.