New Delhi: The absence of Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) supremo Jayant Chaudhary during the crucial voting on the Delhi Services Bill in the Rajya Sabha earlier this week has raised questions over his future plans with several reports claiming that Chaudhary is going to join the NDA ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha Assembly Elections.
However, speaking to ETV Bharat, Trilok Tyagi, RLD General Secretary dismissed all the rumours and said that "these are baseless reports and have nothing to do with the reality. Media on their own has been claiming that we are with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The fact of the matter is that Jayant Chaudhary's wife was hospitalised and therefore he was unable to come. There is no other reason behind his absence from the house."
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To a question on the reports claiming that RLD will be switching its alliance from Samajwadi Party (SP) to BJP as reports claim that all is not well between the two parties, Trilok Tyagi replied, "These are false rumours. In the recently held local elections, both RLD-SP fought the elections together. People need to understand that we are not just the party for the Jats. We represent the farmers and the downtrodden. Jayantji is with the Opposition INDIA bloc and will be attending the next meeting in Mumbai."
The third meeting of the Opposition INDIA bloc will be held at the Grand Hyatt hotel in suburban Santacruz in Mumbai and will be hosted by Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) on August 31-September 1.
Similarly, another source in RLD, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that "people are propagating rumours that RLD supremo will go with BJP since there is an alleged rift between RLD and SP. Jayant Chaudhary has a huge stake in nearly 25-25 Lok Sabha constituencies. We are with the Opposition bloc and we will continue our alliance with them."
He further said that "until now, two meetings have been held, the first in Patna and then in Bengaluru. The next meeting is in Mumbai but the truth is that no one has yet discussed a word on the seat-sharing formula. Even in this upcoming meet in Mumbai, there will be no discussion on seat sharing. That will be discussed in the coming months."
"We are in touch with Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot since we have our own Minister there. We are also in talks with the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh. The next meeting of the INDIA bloc is to be held in Mumbai. The next meeting will be held in Mumbai and after that, the meetings of the INDIA bloc can be held in TMC-ruled West Bengal and after that, it can also be held in Uttar Pradesh", he added.
The RLD lost its state-level party status in April this year after failing to secure at least six per cent of the votes in the 2022 Assembly polls and the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, bought fought in alliance with the Samajwadi Party.
However, Jayant Chaudhary who keeps on posting Tweets, is yet to issue any clarification personally in this matter.
