The Samajwadi Party’s alliance with Rashtriya Lok Dal is almost over and a formal announcement of parting of ways is likely to be made after the conclave of the opposition parties at Patna on June 23. The Jat dominated political outfit, RLD, has decided to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the Congress.
Asked if there was a strain in the relationship of his party with the SP, RLD state president Ramashish Rai said, “The party workers are disappointed with the outcome of the recently-concluded urban local bodies’ polls in Uttar Pradesh. They feel the results could have been different had the SP and RLD fought together.”
Rai, however, stressed that “since we are aiming for a big transformation, the RLD wants the SP, Congress and Azad Samaj Party to sink their differences and work together to bring about a change.”
SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary, when contacted, said his party’s alliance with the RLD was “fully intact”.
A senior RLD leader said the rank and file of the party wanted their party chief Jayant Chaudhary to free himself from the shadow of the SP and “not become a martyr” in case Akhilesh Yadav wanted to go alone in the parliamentary polls.
“The RLD workers of Uttar Pradesh in general and those from the western parts of the state in particular, feel that Akhilesh Yadav will finish the RLD. The party has a natural alliance with the Congress,” he added.
“Muslims have made up their mind to go with the Congress. And, if the RLD, Congress and Azad Samaj Party come together, there will be no need for anyone else. RLD workers have already said that there is no threat from the Congress. The threat is from Akhilesh Yadav,” the senior RLD leader said.
“If Akhilesh Yadav comes along, he is most welcome. But, if he decides to go alone in the Lok Sabha polls, the RLD should not be a martyr along with the SP,” the senior RLD leader said.
He claimed that as against the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when the Muslim votes were divided, this time “they are leaning towards the Congress and not the SP or the Bahujan Samaj Party”.
“With Mallikarjun Kharge becoming the Congress chief, Scheduled Caste voters are for the first time seeing him as a prime ministerial candidate. Because of these two reasons, the Congress has gained strength,” the RLD leader opined.
He claimed that in the recently concluded Karnataka assembly polls, Muslim votes shifted towards the Congress instead of going to the Janata Dal (Secular).
“This shift will happen in the entire country. Kharge’s appeal to the Scheduled Caste voters will have an impact,” the RLD leader asserted.
Sources in the RLD claimed that in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly election, “Akhilesh Yadav took away our winning seats at the last moment”.
They claimed that while the RLD had demanded 35 seats from the SP, Akhilesh Yadav made his candidates contest on TLD tickets on 10 seats.
“On the seats where the RLD was confident of a win, Yadav fielded his candidates,” a source claimed.
