As Lok Sabha elections are approaching, the cracks in the I.N.D.I. Alliance are widening day by day. After Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav called the alliance member Congress a “Chalu” party and hoped for its defeat in 2024, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) has also attacked Congress for not accommodating allies in Rajasthan assembly polls.
The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), a Samajwadi Party ally in Uttar Pradesh, lambasted the Congress for “only giving it one seat in Rajasthan and keeping it in the dark until the last minute.”
According to reports, RLD leaders were surprised that the Congress only awarded the party one seat, which is Bharatpur, with Subhash Garg getting nominated again by the RLD for the coming election.
It is worth recalling that the RLD and Congress contested as allies in the 2018 Rajasthan elections, with the RLD contesting two seats, Bharatpur and Malpura. Subhash Garg of the RLD won Bharatpur by 15,710 votes and was appointed minister, however, the party lost in Malpura.
“We were hopeful of at least five or six seats, but the Congress didn’t clarify its stand on our demands till the very last moment. This was done as a ploy so we don’t go solo or ally with any other party,” an RLD leader in UP told Indian Express.
Meanwhile, the RLD national campaign in-charge Prashant Kanojia reportedly said that the Congress party is not showing a “big heart” and is not accommodating regional parties. He added that such an attitude of the Congress party will bring consequences in the Lok Sabha elections next year.
This comes after the Rajasthan Congress on Saturday (10th November) issued its sixth list of candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections which included 22 names. With the current list, the party has announced candidates for 178 seats, leaving one seat for the Rashtriya Lok Dal in Bharatpur. Notably, the single-phase polls in Rajasthan will be held on November 25, and the counting of votes will take place on December 3.
It seems that although the Congress party has allied with regional parties across the country out of its desperation to defeat Narendra Modi, the party is reluctant to relinquish its hold on even 3-4 seats in state elections.
RLD demanded Bharatpur, Anupgarh, Malpura, Udaipurbati, and Sardarshahr seats from Congress in this assembly election. The party, however, was unable to accommodate its regional ally. Consequently, reports are emerging that RLD supremo Jayant Chaudhary is upset with Congress although he has not taken an aggressive approach like Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
Last week (November 6), Akhilesh Yadav escalated his attack on the I.N.D.I. alliance partner Congress. He also renewed his call for the ‘PDA’ which stands for Pichde (backward classes), Dalit, and Alpasankhyak (minorities). While addressing rallies in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, Former UP CM trained guns at the grand old party accusing it of acting as a “B-team of the BJP”.
Earlier on 5th November, the SP Chief described Congress as a ‘chalu’ (cunning) party while appealing to the crowd not to vote for them. He also took a jibe at the the ages of Congress stalwarts and former chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh Digvijaya Singh and Kamal Nath. He said, “How are people over eighty years old supposed to remember anyone?”
