Uttar Pradesh: Jayant Chaudhary-Led RLD Dissolves State Units, Frontals After Election Defeat

The Jayant Chaudhary-led RLD, which was reduced to a single seat in the 2017 election, fought on 33 seats this time and won eight of them.

New Delhi: Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) on Monday announced the party's chief, Jayant Chaudhary, has dissolved all its units and frontals in Uttar Pradesh, with immediate effect.

This comes after the RLD which contested Uttar Pradesh assembly polls in alliance with the Samajwadi Party won only eight out of 33 seats on which the party had fielded candidates.

"As per the orders passed by RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary, party's state, regional, and districts units and frontals in Uttar Pradesh have been dissolved effective immediately," the RLD tweeted.

In the recently concluded UP Election, the SP bagged 111 seats, a significant improvement from its 2017 tally when it secured only 47 seats while the BJP retained power by winning 255 out of 403 constituencies, securing a 41.29 per cent vote share.

In western Uttar Pradesh, the BJP reigned supreme on nearly 70 per cent of constituencies despite losing 15 seats in the 2022 assembly election. Meanwhile, Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party and RLD showed a rise in the region.

The BJP completely swept some districts like Agra, Mathura, Ghaziabad, and Gautam Buddh Nagar, the Opposition alliance too scored 100 per cent in Shamli and Moradabad, and put up a good show in Muzaffarnagar and Meerut.

The SP and the RLD together won 41 (or 32 per cent) of the 126 seats in the region.

The Jayant Chaudhary-led RLD, which was reduced to a single seat in the 2017 election, fought on 33 seats this time and won eight of them.

After the election results, RLD national spokesperson Sandeep Chaudhary had expressed satisfaction over his party's performance and said the alliance has been successful to a great extent in its objective of bridging the communal divide that had emerged after the 2013 riots in western Uttar Pradesh.

"We fell slightly short in conveying our message to the people. Maybe, if we had got some more time to do that, the election results would have been much better. However, our combined tally has improved this time and the BJP has lost some seats shows how we performed. We will work hard in future," Sandeep Chaudhary told news agency PTI.

Notably, with BJP's win in UP polls, Yogi Adityanath will be the first Chief Minister in the last 37 years to return to power after completing a full term in the state.

(With Agency Inputs)