Lucknow: Former MP Jayant Chaudhary is all set to take over the reins of Rashtriya Lok Dal.
The national executive of the party will be meeting Tuesday virtually to anoint Jayant as the new party president, after his father Chaudhary Ajit Singh who founded the RLD, died May 6.
RLD national secretary and member of national executive, Anil Dubey, confirmed that the election of Jayant as party’s national president is certain in the meeting to be held virtually.
Jayant, as vice president, has already been managing party affairs since 2014 when his father Chaudhary Ajit Singh took a back seat after losing Baghpat Lok Sabha seat to the BJP.
Jayant, a postgraduate from the London School of Economics, will face the biggest challenge of not only taking forward the legacy of his grandfather – former Prime Minister and farmer leader Chaudhary Charan Singh – but also to regain west UP’s Jat vote bank which had decisively shifted towards the BJP in 2014 Lok Sabha elections following 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.
Jayant, 42, had lost Mathura parliamentary seat to BJP’s Hema Malini in 2014 and then faced defeat in Baghpat in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Jayant, however, has regained lost ground with his active participation in the ongoing farmers’ agitation against farm laws.
He has been regularly attending Kisan Panchayats and mustering support for the agitation.
“He is well-versed with the geopolitics of the state and is trained enough to take charge of the party,” said Dubey.
The RLD is continuing its alliance with the Samajwadi Party and Jayant Chaudhary will face his first political test in the 2022 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
