The Samajwadi Party and Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya lok Dal have clinched the deal for inking a pre-poll alliance for the upcoming 2017 Assembly polls.
As per the deal, the SP will support the candidature of Ajit Singh for Rajya Sabha. Both parties are yet to hammer out a seat sharing formula and the number of the Assembly seats to be contested by the RlD in 2017.
Both parties have joined hands for the second time in last decade. Earlier in 2003, RlD was part of the SP government headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav but they parted company ahead of the 2007 Assembly polls.
Samajwadi Party sources said that Ajit Singh is reaching lucknow on Monday to file nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha. The last date for filing the papers is May 31.
The proposed alliance of the two parties has created a problem for the Samajwadi Party which will have to withdraw one of its seven candidates for Rajya Sabha. All seven candidates have filed their papers on May 25.
The SP had earlier withdrawn the candidature of Arvind Pratap Singh for Rajya Sabha to accommodate Gujjar leader Surendra Nagar of Meerut. Singh was later accommodated and nominated to the legislative Council.
SP sources said that PWD minister Shivpal Yadav played an important role in brokering the deal. Yadav held long parleys with Ajit Singh at the latter's residence in New Delhi on Saturday.
Yadav again met Singh on Sunday morning which was followed by a meeting of the Jat leader with Mulayam Singh Yadav in Delhi on Sunday. SP MlC Ashu Malik also had a role in this.
Soon after the meeting of Mulayam Singh and Ajit Singh, the PWD minister said "There was nothing exceptional as political leaders keep meeting each other. Both leaders discussed problems of the farmers of UP, who were in distress due to the drought’’.
SP stands to gain by the alliance in west UP, where Ajit Singh commands the support of Jat community.