Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal has so far failed to reach an agreement with the Congress and Samajwadi Party over distribution of seats in the grand alliance that the three parties are trying to stitch together ahead of the coming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
As per reports, Ajit Singh has stuck to his demand for at least 28 seats for his party whereas the SP and Congress are unwilling to share over 20 seats. This has been a marked climbdown from the leader who had sought a minimum 40 seats for the RLD.
Our sources, however, say that the last round of discussion will take place today. The impasse has also led to a delay in the announcement of the grand alliance for the Assembly elections, despite the SP and the Congress having confirmed it.
Ajit Singh’s RLD, a faction of Apna Dal, JD(U), NCP and even the Trinamool Congress are coming on board to build a Bihar-style grand alliance to defeat BJP in Uttar Pradesh.
The Jat voters who had switched sides from RLD to BJP in 2014 are now returning to the former and the SP-Congress-RLD alliance on the axis will comprehensively win back all the deserters, reports say.
Congress is likely to get 100-105 seats whereas the SP, which has 227 MLAs in the 403-member Assembly, is expected to contest the maximum number of seats.
A day after the Chief Minister’s faction won the battle for the SP’s top post and the cycle symbol, Akhilesh and Ghulam Nabi Azad, the AICC general secretary in charge of UP, said in separate announcements Tuesday that the alliance would be announced in the next 24-48 hours.
