Amid speculations that the Rashtriya Lok Dal chief will not join the Bharat Jodo Yatra of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi due to its alliance with Samajwadi Party despite extending support to it, the party leadership sent a district president and a party representative to attend the yatra in Shamli and Baghpat on Wednesday.
Team RLD national convenor Anupam Mishra and party’s national spokesman Anil Dubey said Jayant Chaudhary did not attend the Bharat Jodo Yatra due to his pre-scheduled meetings and programmes.
Mishra said the RLD had extended moral support to the Bharat Jodo Yatra. “The Bharat Jodo Yatra is a political programme of the Congress and RLD, being a different entity, is with the Congress on political issues and mal-governance of the Bharatiya Janata Party government. We support the positive thinking and effort of the Congress' campaign,” he said.
Sources said the RLD leadership feared that participation in Rahul Gandhi’s yatra would annoy its big brother Samajwadi Party which was treading cautiously in extending support to the yatra.
“The Bharat Jodo Yatra aims at giving Congress the position of leader of all opposition parties in a front/alliance formed to fight the BJP in the 2024 parliamentary election. The SP is not ready to give Congress an upper hand and so its ally RLD is treading cautiously in coming with the Congress by joining its Bharat Jodo Yatra,” the sources said.
They said the RLD leadership chose to send a representative instead as a mark of good gesture to Congress.