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The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) has reportedly sealed a deal with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The Jayant Chaudhary-led RLD will contest two Lok Sabha seats, Baghpat and Bijnor, and has also been promised a Rajya Sabha seat in the seat-sharing agreement, India Today reported.
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The announcement of the seat-sharing agreement is likely to be made within two-three days.
This comes amid differences over seat sharing between the INDI Alliance constituents – SP, Congress and RLD – in Uttar Pradesh.
The RLD and the Samajwadi Party have been allies in Uttar Pradesh since the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
The RLD is influential in pockets of western Uttar Pradesh and the BJP will hope to gain in this region that is home to the influential Jat community.
Since the start of the Modi wave in 2014, the RLD has been drawing a blank in the Lok Sabha elections. It couldn’t win a single seat when it allied with the Congress in 2014 and similar was the case in 2019 when it was a part of the SP-BSP alliance.
Reportedly, the party now feels that it can have a better conversion rate with the BJP as it would consolidate Jat votes. Jat voters either vote for BJP or RLD, and with both parties coming together Jats can vote en masse for the NDA.
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