Lone RLD MLA Ramala joins BJP
LUCKNOW : Ahead of the May 28 by-poll for the Kairana Lok Sabha seat, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday inducted the lone Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) MLA Sahendra Singh Ramala who represents the Chaprauli assembly segment in Baghpat.
Kairana is roughly an hour’s drive from Baghpat and BJP strategists admit that the joining of Ramala, a Jat, who was the lone RLD MLA to win in 2017 UP polls, has been cleared in the belief that it would help the BJP in this by-poll, the last ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The by-poll to Kairana has been necessitated due to the death of the party’s sitting MP Hukum Singh, whose daughter Mriganka is set to be a contestant there. “Now, I am in the BJP and I would do my best to help the party which I joined due to the policies of the Yogi government,” Ramala said soon after his joining at the UP BJP office in Lucknow.
The RLD MLA had been expelled by the party for voting for the BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections. He had then gone on to accuse his party leadership, including Chaudhary Ajit Singh, of adopting dual standard and for allegedly remaining in contact with both the BJP and the opposition parties.
The RLD is now said to be in touch with the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party leadership to probe possibility of putting a joint candidate against the BJP which is expected to name Hukum Singh’s daughter Mriganka as its candidate for the seat. .
No political party has declared its candidate yet. All eyes are on the opposition strategy which at the moment appears divided on whether to team up against the BJP or go solo. “Efforts are on to get the SP and BSP and the Congress to agree to support Jayant Chaudhary for the seat. Jayant is a sure winner if the opposition unites. However the scenario is still hazy and we will take an appropriate decision whether to field a candidate or support one soon,” a RLD leader said.
The RLD leaders admit that the party is still struggling to recover from the aftermath of Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013, which shattered the Jat-Muslim unity, the party’s main support base in western UP.
The RLD, which played the ‘Jat pride’ theory in several western UP districts in 2017 UP polls, plans to do so again. But BJP strategists say that with Ramala in the party and several key Jat leaders including Baghpat MP and union minister Satydev Singh, Muzaffarnagar MP Sanjeev Balyan by their side, they have got their plans worked out.
“A combined opposition would be a cause for worry for sure,” a BJP leader admitted.
However, UP BJP general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal has already tasked the organisation with getting its booth level management strategy in place.
“Bansal has already sounded the cadres and leaders that it’s a must-win poll for the party,” a BJP leader said.