<div>The Janata Dal-United (JDU) is moving ahead on its plan to forge a grand alliance against the Samajwadi Party and the BJP in Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections scheduled next year. The party on Sunday announced support to Rashtriya Lok Dal candidates for byelections in three Assembly seats of the state. <br /><br />The announcement came after a meeting of the state committee on Sunday at Lucknow. The meeting was attended by party chief Sharad Yadav and general secretary K C Tyagi.<br /><br />“This is part of our preparation for the Assembly election of 2017. The RLD is going to be our major partner,” a senior party leader told Deccan Herald.<br /><br />However, things do not seem to be clear as far as the proposed grand alliance is concerned. Since the Congress is likely to be the major partner of this alliance, the JDU was supposed to support it in the bypolls. Instead of doing so, the party chose to support Ajit Singh led RLD.<br /><br />“It will not affect our relationship with the Congress,” said a party leader. The JDU poll strategy in Uttar Pradesh is inspired by the “betrayal” of Mulaym Singh in Bihar elections. The JDU and the RJD buried their bitter rivalry to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP. They had also decided to project Mulayam Singh as the leader of Janata Parivar and wanted him to lead them against BJP in Bihar polls and at the national level.<br /><br />After SP’s coming out of the alliance and contesting Bihar polls against JDU-RJD-Congress combine, both Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar have been working for making inroads in UP. The JDU has already announced a mega rally in Varanasi sometime in March this year.<br /><br />The Bihar chief minster is also likely to address a Kushwaha rally scheduled this week in Ghazipur in eastern UP.<br /><br />Besides the Congress and the RLD, the JDU is trying to bring smaller political parties including the Apna Dal (the group led by the wife of party’s founder Sone Lal Patel), the Peace Party and the Welfare Party.<br /><br />While the Apna Dal has some base among Kurmis, the Peace Party and the Welfare Party have base among Muslims in eastern UP.</div>
<div>The Janata Dal-United (JDU) is moving ahead on its plan to forge a grand alliance against the Samajwadi Party and the BJP in Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections scheduled next year. The party on Sunday announced support to Rashtriya Lok Dal candidates for byelections in three Assembly seats of the state. <br /><br />The announcement came after a meeting of the state committee on Sunday at Lucknow. The meeting was attended by party chief Sharad Yadav and general secretary K C Tyagi.<br /><br />“This is part of our preparation for the Assembly election of 2017. The RLD is going to be our major partner,” a senior party leader told Deccan Herald.<br /><br />However, things do not seem to be clear as far as the proposed grand alliance is concerned. Since the Congress is likely to be the major partner of this alliance, the JDU was supposed to support it in the bypolls. Instead of doing so, the party chose to support Ajit Singh led RLD.<br /><br />“It will not affect our relationship with the Congress,” said a party leader. The JDU poll strategy in Uttar Pradesh is inspired by the “betrayal” of Mulaym Singh in Bihar elections. The JDU and the RJD buried their bitter rivalry to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP. They had also decided to project Mulayam Singh as the leader of Janata Parivar and wanted him to lead them against BJP in Bihar polls and at the national level.<br /><br />After SP’s coming out of the alliance and contesting Bihar polls against JDU-RJD-Congress combine, both Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar have been working for making inroads in UP. The JDU has already announced a mega rally in Varanasi sometime in March this year.<br /><br />The Bihar chief minster is also likely to address a Kushwaha rally scheduled this week in Ghazipur in eastern UP.<br /><br />Besides the Congress and the RLD, the JDU is trying to bring smaller political parties including the Apna Dal (the group led by the wife of party’s founder Sone Lal Patel), the Peace Party and the Welfare Party.<br /><br />While the Apna Dal has some base among Kurmis, the Peace Party and the Welfare Party have base among Muslims in eastern UP.</div>
