From crossroads to reunion, BJP-RLD to supplement each other in Jat belt
“My Ram Ram to all the leaders on the dais and the vast gathering of people,” he greeted in Hindi before starting the speech and paused for a while to see the reaction.
In a significant display of political realignment, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary greeted the crowd at an election rally in Meerut, which has over 33% Muslim voters, with the traditional “Ram Ram” on Sunday, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Yogi Adityanath, among others, on the dais.

“My Ram Ram to all the leaders on the dais and the vast gathering of people,” he greeted in Hindi before starting the speech and paused for a while to see the reaction.
Though “Ram Ram” is a customary greeting in many parts of North India, particularly associated with the Hindu community, it took an added significance given Jayant’s recent political journey.
Once a vocal voice in the opposition INDIA bloc, Jayant’s realignment with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) underscores a notable shift in his political affiliations and his greeting may represent that realignment only.
In fact, reunion of the BJP and the RLD after more than a decade of divorce (they got separated in 2012) ahead of Lok Sabha polls highlights a mutual recognition of each other’s political needs and electoral compulsions in western U.P.
As the winds of change swept across the region, both parties found themselves at the crossroads. The RLD, struggling to maintain its foothold amid shifting political dynamics, sought a strategic partnership to secure its political future while the BJP that found western UP to be its Achilles Heel in 2019, was desperately eying the crucial Jat vote bank and saw an opportunity to expand its influence in the region and hence was anxious to tie-up with Jayant Chaudhary more so when the RLD showed its strength by winning eight seats in the 2022 UP assembly elections (The tally increased to nine with a bypoll win later).
Sanjeev Kumar Sharma, head of the department of political science, CCS University, Meerut and former vice-chancellor Mahatma Gandhi Central University Motihari (Bihar), says, “Both the BJP and the RLD were feeling the need for each other with Jayant Chaudhary waiting for the right time and conferment of the Bharat Ratna on his grandfather and the late PM Chaudhary Charan Singh gave him the much needed excuse to return to the NDA fold.”
The RLD, according to him, wields considerable influence in over two dozen LS Sabha constituencies, including Mathura in western UP.
“The coming of Jayant Chaudhary on board will definitely help the BJP consolidate its support of Jat voters in the region brightening the NDA’s chance of winning those seats it lost in 2019 when the SP, BSP and the RLD were in a pre-poll alliance,” he said.
Despite the Congress-RLD alliance in 2014 and the SP-BSP-RLD alliance in 2019, Jayant Chaudhary’s party failed to win any seat in the two elections. RLD founder Ajit Singh and his son Jayant Chaudhary lost even Baghpat, their family pocket borough, in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls respectively.
Though, in the opposition for last 12 years, the patience of Jayant Chaudhary started paying off after the consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya altered political equations in the country on the one side and the beginning of the unbundling of INDIA bloc on the other.
In the meantime, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced conferment of the Bharat Ratna on the ex-PM and farmers’ leader Chaudhary Charan Singh in February, “winning” the heart of Jayant Chaudhary.
“The RLD-BJP alliance will benefit the RLD more than the BJP that already enjoyed support of the young Jat voters,” Sharma said.
“The RLD is contesting the Baghpat and the Bijnor seats. With the support of the BJP, there is every chance of the RLD entering the Lok Sabha for the first time since 2009. Besides, post-poll, Jayant Chaudhary may get a berth in the Modi cabinet even as one MLA of the party has already been inducted in the Yogi cabinet in U.P,” Sharma said.
The seats where Jat votes are decisive will go to polls in the first three phases on April 19, April 26 and May 7, respectively. Only time will tell how the voters greet Jayant Chaudhary.
