LUCKNOW: While the BJP’s allies are building up pressure on the ruling party for seat sharing arrangements for the upcoming bypolls to 10 assembly seats, the BJP doesn’t seem to be in a mood to spare much except a seat or two for ally Jayant Chaudhury-led Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).After its poor showing in the recent Lok Sabha elections, the ruling BJP is looking at making up for lost prestige by winning the battle of perception ahead of the 2027 Assembly polls.As per BJP insiders, the party may spare the Meerapur seat in Muzaffarnagar for the RLD. The Meerapur seat was with the RLD prior to the Lok Sabha polls and its sitting MLA Chandan Chauhan vacated it after getting elected to the Lok Sabha from Bijnor. The RLD and BJP had contested the Lok Sabha elections in alliance.“In the remaining nine seats, the party may field its own candidates without taking any risk by sparing them to allies,” says a senior BJP leader.Notably, to win maximum seats in the upcoming bypolls, both the party organisation and the state government are working in tandem keeping in mind the caste equations of each and every seat. Of the 10 seats up for grabs, the BJP had three, its ally NISHAD party had one, five were held by the Samajwadi Party (SP) and one was with the RLD which it had contested and won in 2022 in alliance with the SP.Moreover, of the 10, the BJP had contested eight in the 2022 state polls and won just three with a strike rate of 37.8 per cent, while its ally NISHAD had contested on two winning one with a strike rate of 50 per cent. The SP had contested nine and won five with a strike rate of 55.55 per cent while the RLD had a cent per cent strike rate as it had contested on one seat and won it.Significantly, in the recent Lok Sabha elections, BJP allies including OP Rajbhar’s Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), Sanjay Nishad’s NISHAD party and Anupriya Patel’s Apna Dal (S) fared poorly and could not get the support of even their respective communities.
Source link
