A day before the last day of filing nominations for Phase 1 of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) is grappling with candidate issues on as many as three seats, including its traditional seat of Siwalkhas where Jat-Muslim fault lines have remerged despite best efforts of the party.

The party has been forced to change its candidate for Chaprauli in Baghpat district after protests from locals. Its Jewar candidate and big-ticket import, Avtar Singh Bhadana, withdrew from the assembly seat on Thursday. Now, there is a demand to change the SP-RLD candidate from the Siwalkhas seat in Baghpat.

The party cadre has been camping at the house of RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary in Delhi asking that a Jat be given the ticket instead of SP candidate and former MLA Gulam Mohammad. This is also exposing the Jat-Muslim rift in Baghpat after the RLD ran a campaign over the last six months through ‘Bhaichara Sammelans’ (brotherhood summit) to unite the two communities.

Siwalkhas has been a traditional seat for RLD from where Jayant Chaudhary’s grandfather Charan Singh was elected as a three-time MLA but the seat went to SP’s share this time. Gulam Mohammad is a former SP MLA who won from Siwalkhas seat in 2012. This is making the RLD cadre complain that the case of a Jat leader has been ignored here. Party leaders told Chaudhary to not comply with the ‘alliance dharma’ for the larger cause of keeping the Jat vote together and change the candidate as was done for Chaprauli seat.

The Jat Mahasabha has said it will not back SP-RLD if a Jat does not get the ticket. After a sit-in from the cadre at Chaudhary’s house, the RLD changed its Chaprauli candidate from Veerpal Rathi to Ajay Kumar on Wednesday. The RLD cadre is now citing this example to impress upon Chaudhary to float an RJD candidate from Siwalkhas seat.

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