Lucknow: Amid speculation about the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) holding discussions over a possible tie-up ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the latter Wednesday took a different line than its coalition partner Samajwadi Party (SP) and decided that its MLAs will accept the state government’s invite to visit Ayodhya along with other UP assembly legislators on 11 February.
On 2 February, UP CM Yogi Adityanath invited all members of the assembly to visit Ayodhya for the darshan of Ram Lalla’s idol at the Ram temple. Assembly speaker Satish Mahana Tuesday informed the MLAs that the government had invited them for Ayodhya darshan on 11 February.
While all the MLAs of the ruling BJP will visit Ayodhya, the SP has decided that their legislators won’t be part of the delegation.
Speaking to mediapersons on the issue, SP leader Shivpal Yadav said Wednesday that they had earlier requested that “all MLAs be invited to visit Ram temple on 22 January (the day of Ram Lalla consecration)”.
“But the assembly speaker himself was not invited that day, we did not receive any invite either. Now, we will not go with BJP people,” he added. “I will request our national president and leader of the opposition that separate arrangements be made for us (to visit Ram temple),” he said.
SP chief spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary told ThePrint that they can visit Ayodhya any time later.
“We will decide about it later, it is not necessary to visit with everyone,” he said. “Our national president will take a decision about it. It is not about the BJP.”
However, speaking to ThePrint, RLD national spokesperson Mohammad Islam confirmed that the party’s MLAs will be visiting Ayodhya on 11 February under the leadership of the assembly speaker.
“There is no issue in visiting Ayodhya. It is a matter of faith,” he said when asked about the party taking a stand different from the SP’s.
Currently, the RLD has a pact with the SP, and both parties had announced on 19 January that the former will fight on seven Lok Sabha seats in the upcoming elections.
The RLD was, however, said to be unhappy about the SP’s insistence on fielding its leaders on the party’s symbol in several of these seats, including Muzaffarnagar. It was at this point that the BJP was said to have reached out to RLD chief Jayant Choudhary for an alliance.
Islam denied the speculation. “As of now, we are with the INDIA alliance,” he said.
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‘Chaudhary will remain with INDIA bloc’
The RLD is a party with a significant support base among the farmers and Jats of western UP, and currently has nine MLAs in the UP assembly.
Amid the rumours of its alliance with the BJP, the RLD has changed its plans regarding two party programmes scheduled for this month.
While a yuva sammelan was proposed to be held in Mathura on 4 February, the party had planned a programme in Khatauli on 12 February to unveil a statue of former PM Chaudhary Charan Singh, Chaudhary’s grandfather.
On Wednesday, RLD state president Ramashish Rai said the yuva sammelan had been cancelled. The statue, RLD state spokesperson Anil Dubey told ThePrint, would be unveiled at another date.
While the RLD chief has maintained silence over the possibility of an alliance with the BJP, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav Wednesday said he hoped Chaudhary would “not let the fight for the farmers be weakened”.
“Jayant ji is a very sensible and learned person. He understands politics,” Yadav said in Lucknow. “I hope that he will not let the fight be weakened. A struggle is on for the farmers. He won’t let that fight be weakened.”
Shivpal Yadav, too, said Jayant Chaudhary would remain with the INDIA alliance.
“We know Jayant ji,” he added while responding to media queries. “He will fight elections with the INDIA alliance,” he said, adding that the BJP was spreading confusion.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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