SP gives seven seats to ally RLD for 2024 LS polls
While the official announcement has been made regarding the number of seats for the RLD, the parties have not named the seats yet. However, sources say that all the seven seats are in western UP, the RLD’s stronghold.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) announced their alliance for the Lok Sabha polls on Friday.
The Samajwadi Party has agreed to leave seven seats for its ally the RLD in Uttar Pradesh.
This is the first seat-sharing finalisation in UP within the INDIA bloc.
A formal announcement about the seven seats came hours after SP national president Akhilesh Yadav met his RLD counterpart Jayant Chaudhary at the former’s Lucknow residence on Friday morning.
While the official announcement has been made regarding the number of seats for the RLD, the parties have not named the seats yet.
However, the sources say that all the seven seats are in western UP, the RLD’s stronghold.
The seats, the sources say, are most likely to be Baghpat, Mathura, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnore, Meerut, Amroha and Kairana.
The SP chief tweeted on Friday: “Congratulations to everyone on the Rashtriya Lok Dal-SP alliance. Let us all unite for victory!”
Reposting Akhilesh’s tweet, Jayant commented: “Always ready for the protection of national and Constitutional values. It is expected from all the cadres of our alliance to move forward together for the development and prosperity of our region.”
The development came two days after the Congress held a seat-sharing meeting with Samajwadi Party negotiators in Delhi.
“Yes, it’s final. We will contest seven seats in UP. The seats will be announced soon. The SP and RLD had contested the 2014 and 2019 LS polls in UP in alliance, and also the 2022 UP assembly polls,” said Anil Dubey, RLD national spokesperson.
When asked about the SP-RLD announcement about the seven seats for the RLD, the UP Congress Committee’s leader and spokesperson CP Rai said: “This has not happened outside of the INDIA alliance. Soon the seat sharing between the Congress and SP too will be decided. Though we do not know the seats that are going to the RLD, I suppose, the RLD would get those western UP seats where it has strong foothold. In case there is some overlapping on some seats between what the RLD gets and what the Congress aspire, then those issues will be sorted out. The idea is that there should be only one Opposition candidate on each seat against the BJP”.
The Congress and SP are expected to have a third round of negotiations soon for seat sharing between them in Uttar Pradesh. National secretary of RLD Anupam Mishra said, “The bloc is going steady and strong. Everyone in the bloc wanted seat sharing to take shape as early as possible. The process has begun with the announcement of seats for RLD and soon the seat sharing between Congress and SP too would get finalised.”
As the 2024 Lok Sabha elections draw near, India’s political landscape is undergoing a significant reshuffling. The emerging INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) consortium is gearing up to challenge the NDA, setting the stage for an electoral showdown.
