The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) will launch another phase of ‘Samrasta Abhiyan’ (social harmony) campaign in July to cover all 27 Lok Sabha seats in west Uttar Pradesh.
The campaign will be led by RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary which will primarily focus on villages in districts which were impacted by communal violence that broke out after 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.
RLD National General Secretary Trilok Tyagi said that the idea of the campaign is to reach out in at least 500 villages across the 27 seats.
“We will assess the response of the campaign and accordingly decide the future course of action,” he said.
The development marks another attempt by RLD to revive itself after getting decimated in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
A senior RLD leader said that the party has been seeking to increase its electoral base to resurrect itself and remain relevant.
Sources said RLD sought to amalgamate its core vote base of Jats and Gurjars with Muslims, the community which has traditionally been showing its allegiance to Samajwadi Party (SP).
The RLD leader affirmed that the exercise to reach out to Muslim was also aimed to reduce its complete dependency on SP.
While the RLD leaders have been asserting about their firm alliance with the SP, sources said that the party is in no mood to let the senior ally dictate terms when it comes to seat sharing in the next year’s Lok Sabha elections.
Jayant had recently sent feelers to the Congress after it defeated the BJP in the May 10 Karnataka Assembly polls.
Experts point out that RLD has been improving its performance in UP while being in alliance with the SP since the 2022 Assembly elections when it contested on more than three dozen seats and managed to win eight.
The party’s tally went up to nine in the Assembly when RLD won the by-poll in Khatauli.
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