With alliance between the SP and BSP heading towards endgame and likely to be snapped following the poll drubbing in Lok Sabha election, its alliance partner Rashtriya Lok Dal had come to play the role of a fence-sitter right now.
In the Lok Sabha election, RLD bigwigs lost their seats from Mathura, Baghpat and Muzaffarnagar. RLD supremo Ajeet Singh contested the election from Muzaffarnagar while his son and vice-president of RLD Jayant Chowdhury fought from Baghpat. RLD’s strongman in West UP Narendra Singh fought from Mathura. The RLD had got seats under a pact and Samajwadi Party had shared to RLD seats from its own kitty as the BSP was reluctant on seat-sharing. On the other hand, SP bagged five seats loosing one seat in Kannauj while the BSP bagged 10 seats improving its poll tally in 2014 Lok Sabha election.
“The alliance suffered a setback after the BSP supremo alleged that SP votes were not transferred to the BSP in the election and this was the reason of poll debacle. She also claimed that Yadav voters did not vote to SP even and that was why SP lost Kannauj. The alliance further reached the brink of collapse when BSP supremo Mayawati said she would go all alone in the byelections to 11 seats in Uttar Pradesh,” the sources in the RLD said.
Now the blame game between the SP and BSP is underway, the RLD leaders are opting for wait-and-watch policy instead of taking any initiative to save the alliance from falling apart. “The RLD top leaders felt obliged when SP supremo Akhilesh shared seats to the RLD from his kitty. This way RLD’s top leaders are more on the side of the SP than the BSP. But RLD supremo Ajeet Singh, who is a seasoned politician and never mind turning up the applecart in his interest, has decided to wait and watch which way the ongoing alliance fiasco is heading.
RLD spokesman Anil Dubey said the party leaders were mulling over the course of action in the ongoing dilemma over the alliance’s future. “We are yet to find out if the Jatav voters cast their votes for RLD contestants in West UP,” he said.