While welcoming the entry of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra into active politics as the general secretary in-charge for eastern UP, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) vice-president Jayant Chaudhary on Thursday ruled out any possibility of an alliance with Congress in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
“We are not engaged with Congress in any conversation on that front and that they haven’t even made any move in that direction,” Chaudhary said Thursday.
Though RLD is yet to get an official nod from Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav on it being part of the SP-BSP alliance, he said that there is a strong possibility of it happening soon.
“We are working out the matter of seat-sharing. It will happen soon. What I had said about getting four seats in Uttar Pradesh, the possibilities are there. They (SP) are working it out. The delay might be because of some tactical reasons but there isn’t any change in it. About talks with the BSP, I recently wished Mayawati ji on her birthday, but there weren’t any political talks.”
Talking to The Indian Express on Priyanka Gandhi, Chaudhary said, “I do not want to pre-judge the voters’ mind. It is good that she is coming into politics and we welcome that. We need people who are intellectual. The step is in the right direction.”
After contesting on seven seats (2009) in western Uttar Pradesh in an alliance with the BJP, the party had joined hands with the Congress in 2011 and contested on 8 seats in 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
The RLD, however, had lost all the seats – Fatehpur Sikri, Kairana, Baghpat, Bulandshahr, Mathura, Hathras, Bijnor and Amroha.
The last time RLD was with the SP was during the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. In 2017, the RLD was in talks to join the SP-Congress alliance but the seat-sharing arrangement did not work out and the party decided to contest all 403 seats with some other smaller parties.
