Akhilesh Yadav in Delhi to meet father Mulayam Singh; seat-sharing talks with RLD in focus

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav reached New Delhi on Monday to meet party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav and general secretary Ramgopal, ahead of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. During his visit, Akhilesh is likely to meet Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary to finalize seat-sharing for the nearing polls, sources informed.

Chaudhary had announced on Thursday that his party has joined hands with the Samajwadi Party (SP), however, the seat-sharing arrangement was not yet clear. The Akhilesh Yadav-led party is gathering the support of smaller parties as it gears up for a tough battle against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Recently, Akhilesh Yadav patched up ties with estranged uncle Shivpal Yadav and allied with his Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia). Shivpal Yadav had later cleared that PSPL will not merge with Samajwadi Party, backing Akhilesh as CM. The seat-sharing is yet to be decided as Shivpal Yadav aims to fight on 100 seats. In the 2017 elections, Shivpal Yadav and Akhilesh had a fall-out as the former was allegedly dissatisfied with his declining status in the SP. He later broke out and launched the PSP(L) in 2018. 

In October 2021, Jayant Chaudhary had revealed that he was in alliance talks with Akhilesh and wants to contest the upcoming elections with SP. Chaudhary's RLD had allied with SP-BSP in 2019 but failed to win a single seat in the Lok Sabha polls.

Uttar Pradesh Polls 2022

Apart from the Rashtriya Lok Dal, the Samajwadi Party has announced a tie-up with Mahan Dal, Rajbhar's SBSP, and the Apna Dal faction of Krishna Patel. The Rashtriya Lok Dal is likely to be allocated 30-35 seats for the 2022 UP polls in this alliance. 

For the 2022 polls, BJP is fighting under the leadership of incumbent Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath while Congress has aggressively campaigned under the leadership of Priyanka Gandhi in the state, eyeing its solo return.

Last week, Akhilesh Yadav said that he was ready to contest the upcoming polls and stressed that he will choose a seat as per his party's directive. His declaration came days after UP CM Yogi Adityanath confirmed his wish to fight the Assembly election.