RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary (@jayantrld) 
Key Highlights
- SP and RLD have formed an alliance to contest Uttar Pradesh elections 2022
- RLD is considered to have a significant hold on the Jat community in UP
- Amit Shah met several Jat leaders from Uttar Pradesh at BJP MP Parvesh Verma’s residence
Lucknow: Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary on Wednesday refused Bharatiya Janata Party’s offer to join it ahead or post Uttar Pradesh elections 2022. Reacting to BJP MP Parvesh Verma’s statement that ‘BJP’s doors are always open for Jayant’, the RLD president took aim at the saffron party over the deaths of farmers during the protests against the three contentious farm laws which were repealed by the Modi government recently.
Taking to Twitter, Jayant Chaudhary asked the BJP to not send him an invite to join the saffron unit, and instead, send invitations to the 700 farmers’ families who lost their dear ones during the protests.
Chaudhary, who has formed an alliance with Akhilesh Yadav-headed Samajwadi Party (SP), to jointly contest the UP elections 2022, attacked the saffron unit after Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah had a meeting with Jat leaders from western Uttar Pradesh at the residence of MP Parvesh Verma in Delhi.
After the meeting concluded, Verma told the press that BJP is open to welcoming Jayant Chaudhary into its fold.
Besides Shah, the meeting was attended by Union Minister Sanjeev Balyan, BJP MP Satyapal Singh and Parvesh Verma. BJP leaders Mohit Beniwal and Captain Abhimanyu were also in attendance.
The meeting assumes great significance as the Jats had whole-heartedly voted for the saffron party in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections and also in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh polls.
The western UP goes to polls in the first phase on February 10, 2022.
Also, there are murmurs within the political circles that BJP is worried as it fears that Jats may turn their back towards it in Uttar Pradesh polls 2022 because of the recent farmers’ protests.
Uttar Pradesh election results 2022 will be declared on March 10, 2022.