In yet another blow to the Opposition unity, responding to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) decision to confer Bharat Ratna on former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh on Friday, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) has decided to join the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Speaking to reporters, Charan Singh’s grandson and RLD chief Chaudhary Jayant Singh asked how could he say no now. Mr. Singh wrote on X: “Dil Jeet Liya” (You have won our hearts). Later, confirming to The Hindu, he said, he would share the alliance plans and reasons for making a shift from the Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) after the formal announcement in the next few days. Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for fulfilling a long-standing demand, he said, the decision showed that the PM understood the core character of the country.
A freedom fighter who was jailed many times during British rule, Charan Singh started his political career with the Uttar Pradesh Congress. It was in 1959 when he took a stand against Jawaharlal Nehru’s idea of cooperative farming that he emerged on the national scene and went on to become the first non-Congress Chief Minister of U.P.
A champion of the farmer’s cause, he is credited with preserving a system of peasant proprietorship and implementing effective rural land reforms in the State. Known for probity in public life and a strong anti-corruption stance, he worked tirelessly to bring the Opposition forces together after the Emergency and became the Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister in the Janata government. However, later when he had a fallout with Prime Minister Morarji Desai, he ditched the alliance to become the country’s fifth Prime Minister with the support of the Congress. After a short stint at the top post, he was back to the Opposition benches as he refused to drop Emergency-related cases against Indira Gandhi.
On how he would now justify his strong opposition to BJP’s farmer-related policies, Mr. Chaudhary said he was not going to delete his social media posts. “Today, by giving the Bharat Ratna to Chaudhary sahib, the BJP has taken a big step. I cannot believe that it would like to go against the values he stood for.” The decision, he said, would keep his struggle for farmers and his ideology alive for posterity. He criticised Congress for seeing the decision from a political prism.
The award has put to rest days of uncertainty over Mr. Singh’s next move. A close aide of Mr. Singh said BJP had offered the party two Lok Sabha seats to contest and has promised one Rajya Sabha seat. Sources in the party said the decision was necessitated by the push from the Jat farmers, the core vote bank of the party that is at present divided between the BJP and the RLD. The Bharat Ratna to Karpoori Thakur also created an emotional swell in the community.
BJP sources said the party has been working to bring Mr. Singh under the NDA fold for a long time to win the support of the aggressive section of farmers. U.P. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath recently unveiled a statue of Charan Singh in Moradabad and the State leadership has been in touch with RLD MLAs. They also point out the silence of the Tikait faction of the Bharatiya Kisan Union in the last few months. The alliance will help the BJP quell the farmer unrest in the region over MSP law and Agniveer scheme and improve its prospects in the Jat-Muslim dominated Saharanpur and Moradabad divisions and other pockets of West U.P. where it performed poorly in the 2019 election. However, it remains to be seen how the party will adjust its homegrown Jat leaders in the days to come.
This is the third time that the RLD is joining the NDA. RLD founder Ajit Singh worked as Agriculture Minister in the Vajpayee government and the party’s best performance came in 2009 when it won five seats as part of the NDA alliance.
At present, Mr. Singh is a Rajya Sabha member with the support of the Samajwadi Party (SP). The party fought the 2019 Lok Sabha election in alliance with SP and Bahujan Samaj Party and could not score at the hustings. It fought the 2022 Assembly election with the SP and has presently nine members in the State Assembly. It contested the Rajasthan Assembly election in alliance with the Congress and has one MLA.
