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.
