Not getting any firm assurance on the desired number of seats for the Lok Sabha polls from Bahujan Samaj Party-Samajwadi Party alliance till now, the Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal has opened channels of communication with the Congress for a possible tie-up ahead of the crucial elections.
Congress has assured 10 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh and one in Rajasthan to the RLD. The Jat dominated party has been an old ally of the Congress in Rajasthan.
Leaders of both Congress and RLD feigned ignorance about the ongoing talks between the two parties for a possible alliance but they did not deny possibility of their coming together ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Sources in Congress said that a major coalition may take place ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The RLD is unhappy with the BSP-SP coalition and hence the Congress is gearing up.
A Congress leader said, “It can be called ‘Operation Priyanka’ as Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had asked Jyotiraditya Scindia to meet Ajit Singh’s son Jayant Chaudhary. Since then, the two leaders have met twice.”
Confirming his meetings with Congress general secretary in-charge of west UP, Jyotiraditya Scindia, RLD vice president Jayant Chaudhary said, “Talks are underway with the BSP-SP alliance and the common goal of all three parties is to prevent the Bharatiya Janata Party from coming to power. It is too early to make any comment about possibility of aligning with the Congress. Scindia and I have been in Parliament and I have deep regards for him.”
Congress spokesman Akhilesh Singh said, “I do not know about the Scindia-Chaudhary meeting but politics is a game of possibilities.”
The Congress has already made inroads in west UP by poaching Gujjar MLA of BJP from Muzaffarnagar, Avatar Singh Bhadana, who recently resigned from the ruling party and the UP Assembly.