BJP, RLD finalise poll alliance in Uttar Pradesh

Gearing up for the Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party said that it has finalised its pre-poll alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Dal, a party with some influence in western Uttar Pradesh.

Gearing up for the Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday said that it has finalised its pre-poll alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), a party with some influence in western Uttar Pradesh.

HT Image

"The alliance with the RLD has been finalised. We will contest elections together in Uttar Pradesh," Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, BJP vice-president, told IANS.

According to a source in the BJP, "Seven seats have been given to the RLD; of them six in western Uttar Pradesh and one, of Sitapur, in central Uttar Pradesh."

In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the RLD contested the polls in alliance with the Samajwadi Party and won three seats in western Uttar Pradesh, the region dominated by the Jat community.