NDA nets Jayant Choudhary; BJP harvests political exigency

By Manish Anand

New Delhi, March 3: The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) now is formally part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The formalization of ties was given effect by the RLD leader Jayant Chaudhary calling on Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah. The BJP chief JP Nadda was also present when Chaudhaty met Shah.

The formalization of the entry of the RLD into the NDA fold has come after a gap of almost one month since Prime Minister Narendra Modi made public the decision of the government to bestow ‘Bharat Ratna’, the highest civilian award on former PM Chaudhary Charan Singh. Since then, it was being said that the RLD would join the NDA, and this was also positively hinted by Chaudhary in several of his media bytes.

But the BJP appears to have kept Chaudhary waiting. He was let in only after the BJP announced the first list of the candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The first list of the BJP included the parliamentary constituencies of Mathura and Muzaffarnagar from where the saffron outfit fielded Hema Malini and Sanjeev Balyan respectively. Incidentally, the RLD considers both Mathura and Muzaffarnagar as the key catchment areas of the party.

There are ample hints to suggest that the RLD may get at best two Lok Sabha seats to contest in Uttar Pradesh. There are suggestions in some quarters that the RLD may get Baghpat and Bijnore Lok Sabha seats.  Bijnore is the stronghold of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and the party nominee Malook Nagar had won the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

The Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav had announced giving seven Lok Sabha seats to the RLD, days ahead of the prime minister announcing ‘Bharat Ratna’ for Chaudhary Charan Singh. Jayant Chaudhary had been euphoric since the announcement as he remarked ‘dil jeet liya (won heart)’ for the prime minister.

In all possibility, the RLD chose to contest significantly lower number of Lok Sabha seats in a desperation to gain presence in the lower House of parliament. The local political observers in the western parts of UP argue that Jats have mostly been saffronised, eroding the support base of the RLD. This was demonstrated in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as well. Former Union Minister Ajit Singh and his son Jayant Chaudhary had lost the elections to confirm the trend of the rising electoral irrelevance of the RLD.

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About The Author

Manish Anand

Manish Anand is a senior journalist with more than two decades of hardcore reporting on beats such as Prime Minister’s Office, Parliament, BJP, Congress, Planning Commission, NITI Aayog, and scores of Union Ministries.

His past has been with The New Indian Express, The Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle, and The Statesman.

For about 15 years, Manish was also a regular commentator and host for talks on AIR on foreign affairs.

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