SP-RLD divorce on the cards after Jayant’s change of heart
With Jayant’s newfound love for Modi, the coming of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) into the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) fold and divorcing the Samajwadi Party, the old ally, is now being seen as a foregone conclusion.
After consistently launching verbal attacks on the BJP and its government at the Centre and in the states for nearly a decade, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary underwent a change of heart in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday following the Centre’s announcement of conferring the Bharat Ratna posthumously on his grandfather and former prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh.
“Dil jeet liya (won heart),” Jayant said in a post on X, reacting to PM Modi’s post announcing the highest civilian award for the farmer leader. The RLD has been demanding the honour for its icon for many years.
With Jayant’s newfound love for Modi, the coming of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) into the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) fold and divorcing the Samajwadi Party, the old ally, is now being seen as a foregone conclusion. Only a formal announcement is to be made in this regard though Jayant gave ample indications of his joining the NDA in his press conference in New Delhi on Friday.
Another strong indication came from the RLD MLAs’ decision to join their BJP counterparts in going to visit the newly built Ram temple in Ayodhya on Sunday even as the Samajwadi Party, the RLD’s old ally, has maintained distance from the government’s invite for the same.
“We feel an official announcement about the RLD joining the NDA will be made in a day or two,” a senior RLD leader disclosed.
If this happens, RLD will be joining hands with the BJP after 15 years. Its last alliance with the BJP was in 2009 when it won five of the seven Lok Sabha seats it contested, registering the party’s best ever parliamentary poll performance in terms of the number of seats.
The party has a history of changing its political partners as per political expediency. It was always doubted by many if Jayant Chaudhary would continue to stick to his statement in which he said that he was not a 25 paise coin that he would flip.
“Main koi chavanni nahin hoon jo palat jaunga (I am not a 25 paise coin that I will flip,),” Jayant Chaudhary asserted in January 2022 when the BJP publicly said that its doors were open for him. He was then fighting the U.P. assembly elections in an alliance with the SP.
“It appears Jayant Chaudhary was trying to maximise his bargain power and waiting for the right time to walk out of the alliance with the SP and that right time seems to have arrived now,” said another RLD leader.
The buzz about his being upset with the SP and the possibility of his joining hands with the BJP started since the local urban body polls in Uttar Pradesh in April-May last year.
He sprang a surprise by remaining absent from the Rajya Sabha during the voting on the Delhi Services Bill on August 7, 2023. The voting was the first test of the unity of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), a new alliance jointly formed by 26 political parties, including the RLD, to take on National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Earlier also, he shocked many by not attending the Opposition meeting in Patna in June last year.
The BJP’s bid to lure the RLD into its fold by announcing the Bharat Ratna for Chaudhary Charan Singh is being seen by political observers as a masterstroke that will help the saffron party to consolidate its position in Western UP.
“The RLD does have considerable influence on Jat voters in several districts in western UP and the coming of the RLD with it will certainly benefit the BJP electorally in the region where it was bound to face a tough challenge from the RLD-SP alliance as it did in 2019 and 2022,” head of the department of political science, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, SK Pandey said.
He said Chaudhary Charan Singh enjoyed an appeal among Jats irrespective of the party they voted for.
“The announcement of the Bharat Ratna for him will touch the Jat sentiments and swing their support in favour of the BJP,” he said.
The most possible reasons for the Jayant to join the NDA, according to Pandey, could be the altered political equations in the country after the BJP deftly played the Ram temple card before the Lok Sabha polls since Jats, the RLD’s core voters, are Hindus and considered nationalists.
“Jayant Chaudhary must have weighed the pros and cons and arrived at the conclusion that returning to the NDA fold could be far more beneficial for him,” Pandey said, adding that otherwise also the RLD gives its best performance when it is an alliance with the BJP.
RLD insiders claimed apart from getting three Lok Sabha seats after stitching an alliance with the BJP in Uttar Pradesh for 2024, the party would get at least two ministerial berths in the Yogi Adityanath Cabinet in Uttar Pradesh and one in the Modi government.
