Lok Sabha 2024 elections: In another setback to the Opposition INDIA bloc, Jayant Chaudhary's RLD has stitched an alliance with the BJP in Uttar Pradesh for the 2024 Lok Sabha election. As per the seat sharing agreement, the RLD will contest two Lok Sabha seats, Baghpat and Bijnor, and has also been promised a Rajya Sabha seat.
The formal announcement of the alliance will be made in the next two-three days.
Jayant Chaudhary's RLD has pockets of influence in western Uttar Pradesh and the BJP will hope to gain in this region that is home to the influential Jat community.
In fact, in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, of the 16 seats that the BJP lost in Uttar Pradesh, seven were from west UP. It lost all six seats in the Moradabad division.
The development comes amid differences over seat sharing between the INDIA bloc constituents in Uttar Pradesh. There has been no breakthrough in seat sharing talks between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP) as well.
The Akhilesh Yadav-led party has, however, gone on to announce its candidates in 16 seats in Uttar Pradesh, catching the Congress off guard.
In January, Akhilesh Yadav had said that the RLD would be allotted seven seats, but there was no clarity about which constituencies would be allotted.
Earlier this week, as talks of the RLD joining the NDA gained traction, Akhilesh said, "Jayant Chaudhary is an educated person, and he understands politics well. I am hopeful that he will not let the fight for farmers and the prosperity of UP be weakened."
The RLD and the Samajwadi Party have been allies in Uttar Pradesh since the 2019 Lok Sabha election. In the 2019 polls, the RLD lost all three seats it contested while the Samajwadi Party won five seats.
In the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, Akhilesh Yadav's party won 111 seats out of the 347 it contested, while the RLD won nine of the 33 constituencies.