Rajya Sabha polls: Jayant Chaudhary to be joint candidate of RLD, Samajwadi Party

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh): Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary will be the joint candidate of the Samajwadi Party and RLD for the Rajya Sabha elections. With this, Jayant Chaudhary will be its third candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls, slated to be held on June 10. The RLD is a constituent of the SP-led alliance in Uttar Pradesh.

By announcing support to Jayant Chaudhary, the Samajwadi Party has made the first move to cement the SP-RLD alliance for the Lok Sabha elections. Jayant is expected to file his nomination papers on Friday. The RLD has eight MLAs in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly and a candidate needs 37 votes to win the seat.

Elections to 57 Rajya Sabha seats spread across 15 states will take place on June 10. The maximum number of seats is in Uttar Pradesh, with polls to be held for 11 vacancies. 

In February-march this year, the RLD which contested Assembly polls in alliance with the Samajwadi Party won only eight out of 33 seats on which the party had fielded candidates. The SP bagged 111 seats, a significant improvement from its 2017 tally when it secured only 47 seats.

Earlier on Wednesday, the party announced its support for Kapil Sibal, who is contesting as an independent candidate. Another SP nominee is Javed Ali. Kapil Sibal said that he has resigned from Congress in a dramatic announcement to give yet another jolt to the electorally battered party. A former union minister, Sibal, who is part of the G23, has been vocal in his criticism of the party leadership, said he had resigned on May 16.

The 73-year-old lawyer-politician reported statewd that he dreams of bringing all opposition parties together in the fight against the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

On extending SP's support to Sibal, Akhilesh Yadav said, "he had been in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and put his point across well everywhere. I hope he will put his views on big questions of unemployment and inflation, insecure borders and China...." 

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party sources said that the party was likely to field Dimple Yadav in the upcoming by-election on the Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat, which had fallen vacant after Akhilesh Yadav resigned from the seat in March and to concentrate on the state politics.

(With Agency Inputs)