UP polls: No possibility of alliance with Congress, says RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary

Muzaffarnagar: RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary ruled out the possibility of an alliance with the Congress in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. Talking to reporters in Shamli Sunday evening, he asserted that his party’s alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) was in “final stage”. The RLD leader had recently met Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra at the Lucknow airport, and later both of them left for Delhi in a chartered aircraft of the Chhattisgarh government, a development that set tongues wagging in political circles. On being asked that the meeting was perceived as arm-twisting tactics of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) to exert pressure on SP with regard to seat sharing for the state polls, a senior RLD leader had said, “No pressure has been exerted by anyone. This was an informal meeting (shishtaachaar bhet), and it was prevalent among leaders of earlier times. The BJP has changed this trend, and people have become enemies of each other in politics.” Meanwhile, Choudhary said the RLD will fulfill all promises made in the party manifesto, including one crore jobs to youths, setting state advisory price (SAP) for sugarcane and guaranteed payments within 14 days, if it is voted to power in the state. He also opposed the proposed amendments to the Electricity Act 2003.