New Delhi: The BJP’s alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) seemed a foregone conclusion Friday with the latter’s chief, Jayant Chaudhary, all but confirming it after the Modi government announced a Bharat Ratna for former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh, his grandfather.
“How can I say no to the BJP for an alliance,” Chaudhary said. “Koi kasar rehti hai (is there any scope left)?”
“No other government acknowledged Charan Singh’s contribution. It was Modi ji’s vision… he understands and knows the core values of the country.”
Chaudhary’s alliance with the BJP will deal another blow to the Opposition’s INDIA bloc weeks before the general election. Not only is it on sticky ground in states such as West Bengal and Punjab, it also lost one of its prime architects — Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (United) — to the BJP-led NDA last month.
Meanwhile, the BJP is firming up its stand in different states. Apart from Nitish in Bihar, it has the support of breakaway factions of Opposition parties Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in its fold in Maharashtra.
Chaudhary’s party wields considerable support among Jat voters in western Uttar Pradesh. The BJP lost eight of the region’s 27 seats in 2019 as the Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the RLD joined hands and consolidated the Jat-Muslim vote.
While Chaudhary had sealed a seat-sharing pact with the SP, there had been strong speculation over the past week that he was ready to switch.
BJP sources said a formal announcement on the alliance will be made in a day or two. “The BJP president is visiting Muzaffarnagar. Maybe Jayant may visit with him to send a message among the cadres,” said a source.
The RLD, sources said, held talks with central BJP leaders this week, and set two demands: First, a Bharat Ratna for Charan Singh, and four seats to contest in the Lok Sabha election.
The BJP, it is learnt, has offered the RLD two Lok Sabha constituencies and one Rajya Sabha seat. This is based on the fact that the RLD contested three seats in 2019 — Mathura, Baghpat and Muzaffarnagar.
“The alliance is beneficial politically for both parties. Uttar Pradesh is a big state, and the BJP lost eight seats in 2019 in western UP due to the SP-BSP-RLD alliance,” said a second source. “The BJP wants to recover that loss by aligning with the RLD. The RLD has always benefitted in alliance with the BJP, whether in 2002 or 2009. Conferring the Bharat Ratna on Charan Singh will not only cement the BJP-Jat relationship in the Hindi heartland states, it will give Chaudhary a face-saver in his constituency [in light of his BJP tie-up] amid farmer resentment against the Modi government.”
Another BJP source said the BJP “has offered Bijnor and Baghpat seats to the RLD”. “In 2019, the BJP lost Bijnor to the BSP. It won Baghpat, where Jayant Chaudhary was the RLD candidate,” the source added.
A BJP leader said the “real point of difference is Muzaffarnagar”, which was won by Sanjeev Balyan in 2019.
“The RLD is insisting on the seat, saying it is close to the party,” the source added, noting that “Jayant’s father Ajit Singh lost from Muzaffarnagar by only 6,000 votes in 2019 despite the BJP wave in light of the surgical strikes”.
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Not the first time
This is not the first time the RLD has forged an alliance with the BJP.
In 1977, Charan Singh was part of the Janata Party government with the BJP’s predecessor Jana Sangh. In the 2002 assembly polls, the RLD formed an alliance with the BJP — it contested 38 seats and won 14, its highest ever.
In 2007, there was no alliance and the RLD won 10 seats in the assembly. The RLD contested the 2009 Lok Sabha election with the BJP and won five seats. In 2012, the RLD won nine assembly seats, which reduced to one in 2017 — the MLA later joined the BJP.
Charan Singh, one of the tallest leaders of western UP, was instrumental in forging Hindu-Muslim unity in the region. While this equation suffered a crushing blow on account of the Muzaffarnagar riots — the loss of Muslim votes is seen as a key factor in the defeat of Chaudhary’s father Ajit Singh in 2019 — but the farm protest helped heal those differences through a common cause.
As a result, in 2022, the RLD’s tally rose to eight assembly seats.
RLD general secretary Trilok Tyagi said the “alliance will be beneficial for both parties”. “The RLD has worked with the BJP in the past. The prime minister has shown a great gesture by awarding the Bharat Ratna to Chaudhary Charan Singh.”
Former RLD MP Amir Alam said the party enjoyed the support of 36 communities. “Every Muslim or Hindu is a farmer first in western UP,” he added. “Charan Singh ensured employment for every farmer in his day. Aligning with the BJP will not harm the RLD. Our farmers, too, want a share of development and it will help them in getting their sugarcane dues.”
The larger plan
In 2019, among the 14 western UP Lok Sabha seats where the Jats are influential by number, the BJP won seven, while the BSP won four, and the SP, three.
Jats constitute 18 percent of the population in western UP, from Meerut to Saharanpur. The BJP lost 20 assembly seats in western UP in the 2022 assembly polls due to the RLD and Jat resentment on account of the farm protests.
With the RLD deal, the BJP is looking to gain not just in western UP, but also among Jats in Rajasthan and Haryana, where the community forms a crucial votebank.
A BJP leader said the party “has made several efforts to get Jat support in western UP and other states — appointing a Jat from western UP (Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary) as state BJP president from west UP, and picking Jagdeep Dhankhar as Vice-President from Rajasthan. But the RLD’s connection with Jats is very special. Chaudhary Charan Singh is very special for them. Aligning with the RLD will help the BJP cement the Jat connection.”
A party leader from western UP said Jayant Chaudhary also sought to gain from the alliance, since, after losing in 2014 and 2019, “he can’t afford to remain with the SP”.
“After the Ram temple inauguration, he will use the Modi wave to reach Parliament. With the SP, he can only ensure a tough fight. Now, with the Bharat Ratna in hand, he has an instrument to show his constituency who were averse to allying with the BJP.”
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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