Lucknow: Ahead of the much-awaited Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections scheduled to be held in early 2022, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) president Jayant Singh Chaudhary met Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow.
Sharing the picture after the meeting, Chaudhary wrote, 'Growing steps'. Even Akhilesh Yadav tweeted the photo with a caption that read: "Towards a change with Shri Jayant Chaudhary ji."
According to sources, both the leaders can announce a pre-poll alliance on Wednesday. An agreement has been reached regarding the sharing of seats. Sources said that Chaudhary has demanded 50 seats.
These demands were also discussed during the meeting between the two leaders.
The crucial meeting comes days after Chaudhary hinted at forming an alliance with Samajwadi Party in the state. "By this month-end, we (RLD and Samajwadi Party) will take the decision and will come together," RLD chief had said while speaking to ANI.
Akhilesh has made it clear on many occasions that he will tie up with smaller parties in the UP elections.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is likely to return to power in 2022 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, though with a significant reduction in the number of seats it is expected to win, the ABP-CVoter opinion poll said recently.
As per the latest round of opinion polls, the ruling BJP is expected to grab 40.7 per cent of the vote share. As for other the vote share of other key political players in the state, the survey showed vote share of SP is expected to witness a jump of 7.5 per cent from 23.6 per cent in 2017 to 31.1 per cent in 2022.
The total strength of Uttar Pradesh Assembly is 403 seats. The SP and its alliance partners, emerging as a key challenger to the saffron party are expected to win 152 to 160 seats this time.