SP rules out poll pact with RLD, says let Congress part with seats from its share

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According to party sources, the SP wants to contest about 300 of the total 403 seats, including in western UP where it wants to field Muslim candidates. The party is apprehensive that an alliance with the RLD could hit its Muslim votes. The RLD’s vote base in western UP comprises Jats, who have been pitted against Muslims after the Muzaffarnagar riots.

“We will contest from over 300 seats and the Congress will be there for the rest of them… If the Congress wants to work out a deal with the RLD from its share (of seats), that is up to them,” PTI quoted Nanda as saying.
“We have been holding talks with the Congress, not the SP. We will contest the assembly polls in alliance with the Congress… the situation will be clear in one or two days,” said RLD national media in-charge Anil Dubey.

Sources said the RLD has demanded 36 seats from the Congress. The RLD is yet to declare its candidates, although it has maximum stake in the constituencies going to polls in the first and second phases. The last day for filing nominations for the first phase is January 24.

In the 2012 Assembly elections, the RLD won nine of the 46 seats it contested in alliance with the Congress. All these nine seats are going to polls in the first phase.

With the RLD leadership still waiting for an alliance, its probable candidates are in a dilemma. “I have purchased the nomination papers while other related documents are ready. But the party is yet to make things clear about filing nominations, as it is waiting for an alliance with the Congress,” said Tejpal Singh, RLD MLA from Chhata constituency in Mathura.

He added that it was not even clear if the RLD would field a candidate from Chhata or give it to the Congress.

Recently, two party MLAs, Dalveer Singh and Puran Prakash, joined the BJP. Dalveer said he took the decision as he wanted to begin poll preparations while the RLD leadership was still not clear about whether the party would opt for an alliance or go it alone.

The RLD has been pushing for a Bihar-style “grand alliance” with the Janata Dal (U), Janata Dal (S), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Bahujan Samaj Swabhiman Sangharsh Samiti (BS4). On October 4, the party organised a rally in Baghpat district, where Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and senior JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav declared RLD chief Ajit Singh’s son, Jayant Chaudhury, as the group’s chief ministerial candidate.

“SP national president Akhilesh Yadav spoke to JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav two days ago but did not mention any alliance,” said a JD(U) leader.