With RLD chief Ajit Singh and his son Jayant Chaudhary by his side on the dais, AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi is all set to roar in the Jatland of poll-bound Uttar Pradesh when he addresses a joint rally in Meerut on Thursday.
Informing about the scheduled election rally in the western UP region, which will go to polls in the seventh phase on March 3, senior Congress leader Mohan Prakash said, “The meeting will be a display of the strengthening alliance between the two parties, which was formalised in December last.” Besides the RLD’s father-son duo, former Union minister Rashid Masood, who joined the Congress, recently, will also address the rally.
The RLD joined the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in December after which Mr Singh was inducted in the Union Cabinet as part of the poll pact between the two parties in Uttar Pradesh.
Interestingly, before deciding on the venue for a joint rally in western UP a lot of discussion took place between the alliance partners. Sources said, the Congress wanted to hold the rally in Shali area in Muzaffarnagar, but the RLD insisted on Meerut from where it has fielded Haji Yakub Qureshi for Sardhana. The Congress has fielded Mr Qureshi’s brother Yusuf Qureshi for Meerut.
It was learnt that the RLD wanted to avoid Shamli because the seat was a bone of contention between the alliance partners during the seat-sharing talks. The Congress has fielded its sitting MLA Pankaj Mallik from Shamli, which is a new seat created after delimitation. Sources informed the RLD wanted this seat, but the Congress refused to oblige saying that it had announced its candidate. Mr Mallik is a an MLA from Bhagra, which does not exist after delimitation.