Ajit Singh's son Jayant Chaudhary said that he is focussed on polls. (File Photo)
The Rashtriya Lok Dal has ruled out any post-poll alliance with the BJP, enthused by reports that their traditional votebank in western Uttar Pradesh, the Jats, are angry with the BJP and may return to fold. The Jat support had swung to the BJP in 2014 Lok Sabha elections following the Muzzaffarnagar riots, and the RLD - which had won 9 seats in 2012 assembly elections -- had drawn a blank. But with the perceived failure of the BJP to deliver on its pre-election promise of reservation in government jobs, there are reports that the Jat ire against the party has grown.
"I am focussed on polls and not looking at post-poll," Jayant Chaudhary, the son of party chief Ajit Singh, told NDTV. "I can assure you that under no circumstances we are looking at the BJP as an alternative."
As the longtime representative of Jat concerns, the RLD contends that the BJP has not kept the promises made to the Jats in 2014. There is no reservation in government jobs, better support price to sugarcane farmers was not offered and dues to sugar cane farmers remain yet to be paid. This time, the BJP has promised that if voted to power, cane dues for farmers will be paid within a fortnight.
At election rallies like the one in Kundarki constituency, a Muslim-majority constituency on the outskirts of Moradabad, Mr Chaudhary talks of building bridges between communities and thereby, a new political coalition.
"One party says the Muslims are getting together, so Hindus must all get together. Another party talks about caste. I am saying all weavers, farmers, labourers should all unite," he declared at the rally, taking a dig at both the BJP and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party.
But 90 km away in Bijnore, there is palpable tension after a 17-year-old Jat boy in Nayagaon was killed and his father seriously injured. All the accused in the violence -- which took place three days ago -- are Muslims, which created tension and underscored the trust deficit between the two communities.
The RLD candidate from the area had to face a hostile crowed when he visited the victim's family. "Why can't it be treated like any other crime? Why bring it a communal angle? Such things should be banned. Do BJP leaders visit the victims of 5,000 murders and 2,000 rapes?" Mr Chaudhury questioned.
A group of Muslim cushion makers at Kundarki, located next to Mr Chaudhary's rally in Moradabad, downplay his attempts at a rainbow coalition. "We think it is a party of the Jats and we won't be able to vote for them," says Tahir, one of the workers busy stitching the cover of a cushion.
The sentiment is reciprocated 5 kilometres away in Jatupura -- a village dominated by Jatavs but which has hundreds of Jat families.