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RLD leaders upset over poll pact

By J P Shukla

LUCKNOW, MARCH. 2 .The understanding between the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal over sharing of seats for the Lok Sabha elections has disappointed several senior leaders of the RLD who were keen to contest the elections, party sources said.

The 10 seats, which were allotted to the RLD under the agreement between its leader, Ajit Singh, and the UP Chief Minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav, are all situated in the western Jat belt. The move has dashed the hopes of others wishing to contest from constituencies elsewhere in the State. The most glaring case was that of the RLD vice-president, Kailash Nath Singh Yadav, who had contested elections from the Chandauli constituency bordering Bihar. The seat this time has fallen in the quota of the Samajwadi Party depriving Mr Yadav of his chances.

The State RLD chief, Jang Bahadur Singh Patel, had represented the Phulpur constituency in Allahabad as a candidate of the Samajwadi Party. He quit the SP when the party refused to nominate him the second time and joined the Apna Lok Dal and later the RLD. This time he was hoping to get the party nomination to contest the seat. The former Minister, Kalicharan Yadav, the RLD leader in the State Assembly, Munna Singh Chauhan, and another senior party leader from Hardoi district, Ram Asre Verma, were some other aspirants for the party tickets. Among them, Mr Verma had won several elections even as an independent candidate. He was planning to contest from the Shahabad constituency. Mr Chauhan and Mr Yadav were similarly looking for RLD tickets to contest from Faizabad and Ghazipur respectively.

RLD sources, while accepting that the understanding had snatched away chances of some of the party aspirants, however said that the agreement would not be revoked. It was a decision of the party chief, Ajit Singh, and had to be accepted any way. Mr. Ajit Singh alone would decide the selection of candidates too. An important name being mentioned as an RLD candidate this time was that of Jayant Singh, son of Ajit Singh. He is likely to contest the Mathura seat. Nomination of Anuradha Chaudhary, the UP Minister for Irrigation, to contest from Kairana, was another certainty, party sources said.

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