Jayant to embark on ‘Samrasta Abhiyan’ with eye on LS polls

During this period, Jayant and local party leaders would address small gatherings in villages and towns, said party leaders.

Apart from Chandpur and Baghpat, the campaign will cover Baraut (May 20), Dhanaura (May 23), Naugaon (May 24), Fatehpur Sikri (May 26), Muradanagar (May 30), Modinagar (May 31) and Bijnor (June 8) before culminating in Chandpur on June 9.

RLD national general secretary Kuldeep Ujjwal said these public meetings would see conversations on social harmony, social justice and brotherhood. “Our national president will convey to the people the importance of these things for a society to move forward,” said Ujjwal.

The RLD is the second party, next to the BJP, to announce campaigns for the Lok Sabha polls next year. To mark the completion of nine years of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, the BJP has announced to start a “massive public outreach” exercise from May 30 to June 30 in all Lok Sabha constituencies across the country, including all 80 seats in UP, with an eye on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

RLD campaign in charge Prashant Kanojia said the Abhiyan would focus on holding small public meetings in villages with non-Jaat communities.

“We already have the support of Jaats, but we can’t win elections with the support of one community. We will try to reach out to Dalits and Muslims, too. The three communities can ensure our victory on most of the seats in the west,” said Kanojia, adding that the focus, however, will be Jayant’s speeches.
According to a senior RLD leader, the party is eyeing Muslim votes because it seems that the community is not very happy with its ally the Samajwadi Party. “We have a solid alliance with the SP, but we feel the need to reach out to the Muslim community on our own,” said the leader.

“In some seats in the urban local body elections, the Muslim community has given more votes to our candidates where the SP’s candidates were also in the fray. This shows the Muslims prefer us over the SP,” said the leader.

In December last, Chaudhary was credited for the party’s win in the Khatauli (Muzaffarnagar) bypoll, where its candidate Madan Bhaiyya defeated the BJP by 22,143 votes. Supported by the SP, Madan Bhaiyya defeated BJP’s Rajkumari Saini, wife of Vikram Saini whose disqualification as an MLA following the conviction in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots case necessitated the bypoll.

Chaudhary had then told The Indian Express about the party’s approach towards a “low-decibel, high-impact” campaign, like the one in Khatauli, for future elections. “That’s exactly the plan is with the latest Abhiyan, too. We want to create social engineering by connecting Dalits, Muslims and Jaats in western UP. We will hold small gatherings with big impact,” said another RLD leader.

“We also want to focus on Dalits. During this abhiyan, Jayantji will talk to the people about the atrocities faced by Dalits, the misuse of MLA funds allocated for the development and welfare of Dalits and other issues. Our campaign will focus on the marginalised communities,” added the leader.