Jayant Singh, Akhilesh meet, inch closer to poll tie-up
The Hindu
RLD, SP natural allies; seat-sharing details not yet firmed up, say sources
Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Singh met Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday to firm up the alliance for next year’s Assembly polls.
Both the leaders shared photos of the meeting on social media, with Mr. Singh captioning it as “Badhte Kadam (advancing steps)”. RLD sources said there had already been two rounds of talks but Mr. Singh surprised many by making his Lucknow visit public. “Perhaps, he wanted to silence the speculations around the alliance,” said a senior party leader.
“As the caption suggests, the discussion on seats has not reached a conclusion. We have been asking for 40-42 seats and might have to settle at 36-38 seats,” he said. “There may be a few seats where our candidate will fight on SP’s symbol and there will be one or two seats where their candidate will contest on our symbol,” he added.