Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) vice-president Jayant Chaudhary met Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow on Tuesday. Both leaders, however, declined to share details of the discussions with the media. Chaudhury reached the state Samajwadi Party office and remained closeted with Akhilesh Yadav for over an hour. Later, Chaudhary told waiting persons: "We discussed about the present political scenario and the course of action and also about the BJP's failures."
"Milna julna, political charcha karna, ye to hote rahna chahiye (routine meetings and political discussions should go on)," Chaudhary said. When asked if there were any positive outcome from the meeting, the RLD leader said: "Certainly things are positive. We (Jayant and Akhilesh) have known each other for a long time. In our assessment of the situation, we think that Akhilesh Yadav might be quizzed by the CBI in the mining scam. Institutions are being abused by the BJP government and everyone is watching. I told Akhilesh, our party is with him," said Chaudhary.
On the number of seats his party would get in the proposed SP-BSP alliance, the RLD leader said: "The media is curious about it. Everything will be clear in the near future."
Chaudhary parried questions on the possibility of inclusion of the Congress in the alliance for the coming Lok Sabha polls.
Though there was no official word so far from the Samajwadi Party and BSP, sources claimed the two parties would contest 37 Lok Sabha seats each in UP, which has a total of 80 Lok Sabha seats. Sources also claimed that the remaining six seats would be left for the Congress, Rashtriya Lok Dal and other parties.
On reservation of 10 per cent to economically backward sections in the general category, Chaudhary said: "The BJP did not follow any of its announcements or promises."
Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party continued its tirade against the BJP for attempting to frame Akhilesh Yadav in mining scam using the CBI.
"Akhilesh a leader of impeccable integrity, and he sincerely worked for five years as the Chief Minister of UP ensuring rapid development of the state. This has irked the BJP and they have let loose the CBI to malign the image of our party president," said SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary.
The SP leader said that the BJP was rattled by the coming together of the SP and the BSP and fearing its certain defeat in the coming Lok Sabha elections, it was doing its best to destroy the clean image of Akhilesh. He added that the attempts of the BJP to frame Akhilesh in false cases would hurt its own image rather damage the Samajwadi Party.