The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) on Thursday punched much higher than its weight as a proverbial “three-district party” in western Uttar Pradesh, with some of its leaders declaring that the party will contest alone and the Grand Alliance will unravel.

Buoyed by the return of the Jats to its folds, the RLD is not ready to accept the 23-25 seats that heavyweights Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress are willing to offer them.

The RLD, it seems, is not willing to settle for less than 35 seats and the projection of party supremo Ajit Singh’s son Jayant Chaudhary as Deputy CM of UP.

Party leaders unofficially put out a line that the RLD will contest “all 403 seats in UP” and project Chaudhary as its chief ministerial candidate. Officially, both the RLD and the SP maintained there was no direct communication between them. RLD leader Trilok Tyagi said SP leaders “talked to us in the past but there are no talks on an alliance after that”.

The more realistic situation is that the SP is willing to part with only 103 seats and wants the RLD and the Congress to make do with that.

UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav wants his party, which is the biggest player in the alliance, to contest 300 seats. In fact, the SP seemed to be keen on not negotiating with the RLD directly and let the Congress deal with Ajit Singh and his son, who are both tough bargainers.

Accordingly, SP leader Kiranmay Nanda declared that his party “will only ally with the Congress” and the SP will contest “300 seats out of total 403, leaving the rest to the Congress”.

Akhilesh is believed to have his list of candidates ready and has given them instructions to start preparing for filing nominations.

In fact, besides the Congress, the SP is also keen on aligning with some small parties in eastern UP, such as the Bhartiya Samaj Party, which represents the Rajbhar community.

Rajbhars are a landless community demanding inclusion among the Scheduled Castes. They constitute about 18 per cent of the electorate in the eastern UP region.

Similarly, former BSP MLA and Pasi leader RK Chowdhary is also believed to have been in touch with Akhilesh and the latter is considering allying with him as well.

The Congress, on its part, wants all of its 29 sitting MLAs to contest. Moreover, it wants all those seats where it had come second in 2012. This number stands at 32.

The grand old party wants one candidate in every district and in some, the number can go up to two-three candidates. In Rae Bareli and Amethi, from where Sonia and Rahul Gandhi had won their parliamentary elections, the Congress does not want the SP to take away all the Assembly seats.

Party general secretary in charge of UP, Ghulam Nabi Azad, and Akhilesh are yet to meet. The formal announcement of all seats is expected by Saturday.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW