Baghpat: Will RLD gain back foothold with none from Charan Singh’s clan in fray?

Baghpat Lok Sabha constituency of Uttar Pradesh remained the traditional seat and stronghold of former PM Chaudhary Charan Singh’s family from 1977 to 2009 with the exception of 1998 polls when his son Ajit Singh lost the seat to BJP’s Sompal Shastri.

Chaudhary Charan Singh, who was recently conferred the country’s highest civilian award Bharat Ratna, won the seat in 1977, 1980 and 1984. After his death in 1987, his son and former Union minister Ajit Singh represented it in Lok Sabha in 1989, 1991, 1996, 1999, 2004 and 2009.

From 2014, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), which Ajit Singh’s son Jayant Chaudhary heads now, lost its ground on the seat. That year, Ajit Singh stood third there and in 2019 polls, Jayant lost from here. BJP’s Satya Pal Singh had won the seat in the last general election.

In this backdrop, it will be interesting to see whether the RLD will be able to regain its glory by winning the seat in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls or not. Also, this is the first general election since 1977 when none of Chaudhary Charan Singh’s family member is in the fray.

Reason: After joining the BJP-led NDA recently, it was speculated that the RLD may field Jayant Chaudhary’s wife from Baghpat seat. However, contrary to it, the party chose senior party loyalist Dr Rajkumar Sangwan as it pick from the constituency. RLD MLA from Meerapur constituency Chandan Chauhan is the party’s choice for Bijnor seat.

Appreciating Jayant’s decision of fielding Dr Sangwan from Baghpat, Sompal Shastri, who defeated Jayant’s father Ajit Singh in the 1998 Lok Sabha polls from the seat, said, “He (Sangwan) has been dedicated for the party for over four decades now and his candidature will boost the moral of party workers and leaders.”

Baghpat has 22.4 percent Jats, 18.8 percent Muslims, 20.4 percent SC, 11.4 percent Gujjar, 3.2 percent Yadav, 3.2 percent Vaishya, 6.4 percent Brahmin, 3 percent each Tyagi and Thakur along with 4 percent other voters.