RLD first family to fight 2 of 3 seats party got

Lucknow, February 25

Rashtriya Lok Dal on Monday announced that its president Ajit Singh would contest from Muzaffarnagar while son and party vice-president Jayant Chaudhary would be in the fray from Baghpat.

The Jat-dominated party has been allotted three seats in the SP-BSP alliance. No candidate has been announced from the third seat of Mathura where BJP’s Hema Malini is the sitting MP. In 2014, she had defeated then sitting MP Jayant. 

The likelihood of facing her once again has perhaps prompted Jayant to shift his seat to Baghpat, the ‘karmabhoomi’ of his grandfather and former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh. The RLD had drawn a blank in 2014 Lok Sabha. The Muzaffarnagar riots had caused the rupture of RLD’s traditional vote bank—Jats and Muslims in western UP.

However, the RLD managed to make their presence in the 16 LS when SP candidate Tabassum Hasan contested and won the Kairana by-election in May 2018 on the RLD symbol. While the Muzaffarnagar riots had turned the Jats against Muslims, the issue of farmers’ distress brought them back together helping the RLD win from Kairana. — TNS