Ajit Singh busy courting Cong

Rajiv Ranjan Jha / TNN / May 28, 2007, 01:57 IST

Share

AA

Text Size

Small
Medium
Large

Cold-shouldered by Mayawati, Rashtriya Lok Dal president Ajit Singh is now looking up to the Congress to remain in the power equations.

LUCKNOW: Cold-shouldered by Mayawati, Rashtriya Lok Dal president Ajit Singh is now looking up to the Congress to remain in the power equations. He is wary of remaining out of power for long and fears that the party might lose its support base if ministerial positions continue to elude his men.
With all these rumblings, Singh attended the dinner hosted by Congress chief in New Delhi a few days back.However, all his efforts came to nought as he could not fructify the move to secure a berth for himself and one of his colleagues in the Union ministry.
RLD's entire politics revolves around concessions to farmers like remunerative support price for wheat, timely payment to cane growers and no cess on irrigation. He has been raking up the issue of Harit Pradesh periodically to keep party cadre in good humour and make them believe that RLD leaders would never compromise on it.
Till a few months back, one-third MLAs of RLD were either minister or had ministerial position in the erstwhile Mulayam ministry. Before losing many seats, five to be precise, in the recently held assembly polls, the party was dragged in the Kavita murder case with senior party leaders involvement in the case coming to fore.

This brought a bad name to the party and had to pay a heavy price in the assembly polls. Now, party leaders want to come closer to the Centre. This need also stems from party's inability to expand its area of influence beyond the Jat-dominated areas.
RLD think tank believes that friendship with Congress would help it piggy ride on the latter in other areas of the state.
A RLD leader said that Congress claimed to have secured 9 per cent votes in the recently concluded state elections while RLD got 3 per cent votes. The two parties could jointly pose an effective challenge on a few seats.
If RLD has its way regarding its overtures to the Centre, then it is likely to help it win more seats in the 2009 general elections.

End of Article

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA