JD-U backs Ajit’s RLD in 3 UP bypolls in February

The JD(U) on Sunday announced its support for RLD candidates for the byelections to three Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh while it explores forming a more permanent coalition with Ajit Singh’s party, the Congress and others for next year’s state Assembly polls, after the success of the Grand Alliance experiment in Bihar.

“Our party will support RLD candidates in all three seats in the byelections going to be held on February 13,” JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav said after meeting the party’s state executive committee in Lucknow. Bypolls are due in the Bikapur, Muzaffarnagar and Deoband Assembly seats.

Making the announcement, Mr Yadav said the doors were open for the formation of a Grand Alliance in the state for which “talks are going on... but nothing concrete has come up till now”.

“The intention is to consolidate the votes of ordinary people. I will continue to strive for this, though at the moment I will not spell out the names of partners in this alliance,” said the JD(U) chief. He, however, admitted that the task of building an alliance in UP was much more difficult than it was in Bihar. The JD(U) chief said that the fight for marginalised and poor farmers was far from over and he and other secular leaders would continue to work for this.

“One often digs a well but does not find water, and then moves on to dig another. In politics, building workable alliances is something like this,” he pointed out.

Asked about the possibility of the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party joining the alliance, Mr Yadav said: “I did not close the door. It was Mulayam Singh Yadav who walked out.”

Sources said RLD chief Ajit Singh had a meeting with the JD(U) president a couple of days back. when the two leaders discussed the broad contours of a larger coalition against the BJP at a time when both the SP and BSP, the two major players in state politics, have decided to go it alone in the state elections.

The RLD chief also discussed the issue with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar in New Delhi last month, when the latter was in the national capital for the launch of Mr Yadav’s autobiography. Peace Party chief Ayub Ansari also met Mr Nitish Kumar and JD(U) general secretary K.C. Tyagi to discuss the issue, sources said. The Peace Party has a presence in eastern UP, mainly in Gorakhpur and its surrounding areas.

Mr Tyagi, a senior party leader from Uttar Pradesh, who has been tasked with organising a joint RLD-JD(U) rally in western Uttar Pradesh, said: “We are keen to be part of any anti-BJP campaign or front... In any such campaign in western Uttar Pradesh, the RLD is an important element. Any grand alliance minus the RLD will not be successful in western UP.”

Sources in the JD(U) said the party was also keen to forge an alliance with the Congress in Assam, but the latter’s state unit was not favourably inclined.