Signifying a churn in the relationship between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) in the aftermath of U.P. Assembly polls, RLD State president Masood Ahmed wrote an explosive letter to party president Chaudhary Jayant Singh on Saturday, accusing him and SP president Akhilesh Yadav of taking money in lieu of party tickets and failing to address Dalit and Muslim issues. The letter, giving ‘resignation’ as its subject, has come days after Mr. Singh dismissed the RLD’s frontal bodies and called for a meeting in Lucknow on March 21.
Citing instances, Mr. Ahmed, who has been the State president since 2016, also charged the SP of undermining alliance partners and accused its leaders of adopting a “supremo culture”. Mr. Ahmed appealed to Mr. Singh to suspend the alliance until Mr. Yadav treated the RLD as an equal partner.
In a recent television interview, Mr. Singh had said that the SP and the RLD would fight the 2024 Lok Sabha polls together.
