RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary to skip Patna meet owing to ‘personal reasons’

LUCKNOW: Days after reports of strained relations between him and senior alliance partner Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary announced on Thursday that he won't be attending the opposition meet in Patna owing to his prior engagement abroad. The party, however, said it had extended “full support” and “commitment” to the united opposition meeting.
RLD national general secretary Trilok Tyagi told TOI that “our alliance leader is Akhilesh Yadav and he would be present there (at the meet). ” Asked if the party would send a representative, Tyagi said the meet would mainly be attended by parties’ national presidents.
Tyagi reiterated that RLD’s alliance with SP remained “immensely strong”. “We were together in the 2022 Assembly elections, then in the recent civic polls and will remain together in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as well,” he said.
Jayant, in his letter dated June 12, 2023, has written to Bihar CM Nitish Kumar saying that he won’t be able to attend the meet because of “personal reasons”. But, Jayant said, he hoped that the meet would prove to be “decisive” in bolstering the opposition unity. “Opposition unity is the need of the hour given the threat posed by the communal forces to the democratic set up,” he had said, insisting that the opposition should initiate the process of dialogue and come up with a practical and visionary scheme.
The speculation about strained ties between SP and RLd had gained momentum after Jayant attended the swearing-in ceremony of Congress leader Siddaramaiah as Karnataka CM in May while Akihlesh gave it a miss. It was speculated that Jayant was looking up to the Congress ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The RLD boss later kicked off a solo ‘Samarasta Abhiyan’ to amalgamate his core Jat voters with Muslims who have traditionally voted for the SP.
Asenior RLD leader said the initiatives taken by the party are primarily aimed to firm up its political presence and boost the organisational strength.