UP: SP-RLD Seal Alliance for Lok Sabha, Akhilesh Agrees to Give 7 Seats to Jayant's Party

Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) have sealed their alliance for the upcoming Lok Sabha election. The two parties have agreed on the number of seats to be shared but have not disclosed the names yet.

The clinching of this alliance in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh marks the first breakthrough in seat sharing between two constituents of the INDIA Bloc since its formation in July 2023.

On Friday morning, SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav met RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary at his Lucknow residence. Later, both leaders took to the social media to talk about the alliance. 

Yadav wrote on X (formerly Twitter) while sharing a picture with Chaudhary, "Congratulations to everyone on the alliance of Rashtriya Lok Dal and SP! Let us all unite for victory!"

Chaudhary, while reposting the SP chief's post said: “Always ready to protect national and constitutional values. We expect all workers of our alliance to move forward together for the development and prosperity of our region.”

While the official announcement has been made regarding the number of seats for the RLD, the parties have not named the seats yet. However, locals say that all the seven seats are in the sugarcane belt of western UP, the RLD’s stronghold.

Speaking with NewsClick, RLD national general secretary Merajuddin Ahmad said the seats were most likely to be Meerut, Baghpat, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnore, Kairana, Shamli and Fatehpur Sikri where the Jat and Muslim communities have a sizeable number of voters.  

On the poll prospects of the RLD-SP alliance, the RLD leader said, "We will win all the seats as sugarcane farmers have been suffering under the ruling government. The rate of sugarcane has not been decided till date according to the cost of the farmer despite farmers who are mostly Jat protesting for years demanding to increase the rate but the government did not pay heed. 

The RLD’s core vote bank has been the Jat population. The Lok Sabha constituencies where there is maximum Jat population are Muzaffarnagar, Kairana, Bijnor, Mathura, Baghpat, Amroha and Meerut. 

SP-RLD Alliance

The SP and RLD fought the 2022 Assembly elections in alliance, but failed to prevent BJP’s return to power in Uttar Pradesh, winning only a little over 100 seats. The BJP secured 255 seats and formed the government once again under the leadership of Yogi Adityanath. The SP had then provided 33 seats to RLD, which could only win eight.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the RLD was part of the SP-BSP alliance. The RLD had earlier won the Mathura, Baghpat and Muzaffarnagar seats but lost all the three, while the SP and BSP won 5 seats and 10 seats, respectively.

It remains to be seen how the Congress handles seat-sharing in Uttar Pradesh following the two opposition INDIA coalition parties' agreement to contest jointly in the Lok Sabha elections.

Meanwhile, no agreement has yet been reached on seat-sharing between Congress and SP. The Congress believes the SP's offer of fewer than 10 seats, which was made at the close of the third round of negotiations on January 18, as “unacceptable”.

Read Also: UP: SP-Congress Shadow-Boxing on, Stances ‘Harden’ Over 2024 Lok Sabha Seat Deal

Sources said the grand old party has been demanding 20 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats from SP, including Rae Bareli, Amethi, Varanasi, Kushinagar, Ayodhya, Domariyaganj, Gonda, Shravasti, Shahjahanpur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Pilibhit, Kanpur, Farrukhabad, Barabanki, Jhansi, Moradabad, Akbarpur, Pratapgarh and Dharuhera.

There are 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has already said that his party would lead the INDIA bloc in UP. It is said to be is claiming to contest elections on 65 seats in the state. The buzz is that SP is trying to convince Congress and RLD to settle for 15 seats out of 80.