It may be mentioned that there was a time when late Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh grandfather of Jayant was undisputed leader of Jat community. Later on his son Ajit Singh and grandson Jayant enjoyed the support from the community.

The seat sharing formula given by Akhilesh Yadav had three seats for Samajwadi Party candidates under the symbol of RLD. These seats are Muzaffarnagar, Kairana and Bijnore. a move that may have upset Jayant Chaudhary. The leaders and supporters of RLD are also unhappy with this formula. Internal survey conducted by RLD also reveal that party candidates can win from these seats on their own.

Although RLD dominates in some areas of Western UP but there has been erosion in support base of Jayant Chaudhary which was evident in 2022 assembly polls when farmers despite their long agitation voted for BJP candidates belying all expectations. During 2022 assembly elections, RLD was in alliance with Samajwadi Party and contested 33 seats and won eight seats. One seat was won by RLD in the bypolls.

In 2019 Lok Sabha polls, RLD contested three seats in alliance with Samajwadi Party but could not win a single seat. Later on Akhilesh Yadav sent Jayant Chaudhary to Rajya Sabha with the support of Samajwadi Party.

Under the new development BJP has capitalised on the unrest in RLD over the seat formula with Samajwadi Party and reportedly offered four seats Kairana, Baghpat, Mathura and Amroha. There are reports that BJP may also give one Rajya Sabha to RLD.

Although Akhilesh Yadav and Dimple Yadav said that they were confident Jayant Chaudhary would not join hands with BJP but there is a mysterious silence from RLD leadership. All the media panelists from RLD have also been asked not to issue any statement or talk about this issue. On the other hand, BJP leaders have publicly welcomed the move to bring RLD to NDA. There are reports that RLD MLAs will accompany BJP MLAs to Ayodhya for darshan of Ram Temple.

Samajwadi Party has also announced that it would leave only 11 seats for Congress as INDIA partner. The names of seats are not known. The talks between Samajwadi Party and Congress are still in progress. There are reports that Congress wants to contest in as many as 21 seats.

It would be worth mentioning here that Samajwadi Party released the first list of candidates for 16 Lok Sabha seats. These seats also include those where Congress had been thinking fielding candidates.

During last Lok Sabha polls in 2019, Congress won only one seat that too of Mrs Sonia Gandhi while BSP in alliance with Samajwadi Party won 10 seats and Samajwadi Party won only five seats. This time Samajwadi Party wants to contest 65 seats as the performance of the party was quite impressive as it increased the vote share and got 111 seats in 2022 assembly polls.

With the Ram Mandir inauguration on January 22, there is a wave of Hindutva in Uttar Pradesh and BJP is capitalizing on it. In that context, it is essential that the SP leader Akhilesh Yadav tries his best to arrive at an electoral understanding with the RLD and the Congress to take on the resurgent BJP. Already the battle is tougher, any desertion of RLD to the side of BJP, will be disastrous for INDIA bloc. (IPA Service)