Lucknow, Jan 6
RLD president Jayant Chaudhary on Thursday met Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav here and had detailed discussions on the upcoming assembly elections which the two parties have decided to fight together.
The RLD chief who reached here in the afternoon met the SP president for about two hours, a senior RLD leader said.
Details of the meeting were not available but media reports suggested it was to finalise the seat-sharing arrangement between the two pre-poll allies.
The two leaders later shared a picture of their meeting on their Twitter handles.
“Cemented our ties for the development of Uttar Pradesh,” said Chaudhary in his tweet.
Yadav, on the other hand, said, “Talking about the future development of UP with Shri Jayant Chaudhary ji.”
Asked about the meeting, the RLD leader said discussions over vital issues were held and there has been significant progress on some of them.
Asked if seat-sharing was among them and when it would be made public, he said, It will be declared in a few days.
The Rashtriya Lok Dal is demanding a lion share of seats in western Uttar Pradesh.
The two leaders had last met in Lucknow in November to give a final shape of their alliance and after the meeting, both had put out tweets confirming the finalisation of the poll partnership.
There has, however, not been any announcement on the issue of seat-sharing, amid their supporters’ keenness and curiosity over it.
The Election Commission is expected to declare the polls in the five states including UP soon.
The SP allying with the RLD is seen to be Akhilesh Yadav’s effort to win more seats in western Uttar Pradesh having around 67 assembly seats.
Most of these seats are with the BJP presently, but the SP-RLD together wish to change the equation in 2022 state polls particularly in the wake of farmers agitation against three farm laws.
Western UP has a sizeable population of farmers and people from there had participated in the agitation against farm laws on Delhi borders.
Deriving its legacy from former “kisan” Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh, RLD claims support among the farmers in the region.
