RLD declares names of two Lok Sabha candidates from Baghpat, Bijnor

The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), which formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) last week, on Monday declared its candidates on two seats in Uttar Pradesh for the coming Lok Sabha elections.

While RLD leader Rajkumar Sangwan was fielded from Baghpat, another leader, Chandan Chauhan, was announced as the candidate from Bijnor.

The announcement, which was made by the party on X, came two days after the BJP declared 195 candidates for Lok Sabha elections, including 51 from Uttar Pradesh.

Uttar Pradesh is crucial for the BJP-led NDA as well as the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance as it sends 80 lawmakers to Parliament.

“It is indeed a reward bestowed upon me by my party and (RLD chief) Jayant Chaudhary ji. I will try my best to live up to his expectations,” Sangwan, who is the RLD national organisational secretary, said.

The Baghpat seat plays a crucial role in the state’s Jat politics and was won by former prime minister and key Jat leader Chaudhary Charan Singh three times in the past. Subsequently, his son, Chaudhary Ajit Singh, represented this seat in the Lok Sabha between 1989 and 2009. However, Ajit Singh’s son and party chief Jayant Chaudhary lost the seat in the 2019 polls.

On Saturday, the RLD announced that it has formally joined the BJP-led NDA to jointly contest the Lok Sabha elections.

In the 2014 Parliamentary polls, the RLD fought in alliance with the Congress and in 2019, it fought in alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

The BJP-led NDA secured 64 out of the 80 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. BSP’s Malook Nagar won the Bijnor seat while BJP’s Satya Pal Singh won the Baghpat seat.

Besides the two candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, the RLD also announced a candidate for the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council election and fielded Yogesh Chaudhary.