Lok Sabha Elections 2024: RLD enters NDA fold as BJP aims big gains in western UP
Union home minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah with RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary
Lok Sabha elections 2024:Weeks after late former Indian prime minister Charan Singh was conferred Bharat Ratna by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, the party founded by his son Ajit Singh — Rashtriya Lok Dal — formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance on Saturday (March 2).
The RLD's arrival in the NDA coincided with the announcement of the first set of BJP candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. A total of 51 BJP candidates were named from Uttar Pradesh, the northern state which sends 80 parliamentarians to the Lok Sabha and thus wields a remarkable political weight in General Elections.
The RLD is a significant political force in the fertile plains of western Uttar Pradesh partly dominated by the Jat community. The party was formed in 1996 by Charan Singh's son Ajit Singh as a breakaway faction of the Janata Dal. Its peak performance in Lok Sabha elections was in 2004 when it secured a 4.5 per cent vote share in Uttar Pradesh.
Rashtriya Lok Dal during PM Modi's years in power
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The party contested the Lok Sabha elections without any formal alliance in 2014. After succeeding father Ajit Singh as party president, the new RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary allied with the Samajwadi Party under Akhilesh Yadav in 2019, a partnership which continued till as early as January 2024.
The combined vote share between the RLD and SP was a little less than 20 per cent in 2019 but the RLD had lost all three seats it contested while the SP won five.
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The RLD and the SP had even agreed upon a seat-sharing arrangement in January 2024, with the former nodding for a total of seven Lok Sabha seats in Western Uttar Pradesh. But as soon as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government announced that Jayant's late grandfather and former PM Charan Singh would be felicitated with India's highest civilian honour, the RLD chief could not decline the proposition of joining the NDA when asked so by the reporters.
RLD in NDA: What does it mean for the BJP?
The BJP-led NDA won 64 of 80 seats in 2019 elections, with 62 won by the BJP alone. Out of the 16 seats that the partylost in UP, seven were inthe western part of the state. Jats, who form nearly 10 per cent of the total population in at least six districts of western Uttar Pradesh have supported Jayant Chaudhary's party during elections in the recent past. The BJP hopes to win the seats it lost in 2019 through its alliance with the RLD.