With eye on 2024, Jayant dissolves RLD units & frontal outfits; orders poll review

“In the direction given by Jayant Chaudhary, all state, regional and district level units, along with frontal organisations, have been suspended. A three-member committee has been formed that will submit a report after interacting with all party workers,” the party said in a statement.

RLD youth leader Rohit Jhakar said, “Our next goal is the Lok Sabha elections. The evaluation process will help the party identify both strong and weak points. In many places, we lost by a narrow margin. In one seat, we lost by fewer than 100 votes. This goes on to show that the party gave a good fight.”

Party insiders said leaders would be allotted new responsibilities following the evaluation of their contributions. The RLD, which contested the elections in alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP), won eight seats in west Uttar Pradesh and managed to increase its vote share from 1.78 per cent in 2017 to 2.85 per cent. Many party officials concurred with Jhakar, saying the “introspection” was required since the RLD failed to win in many places despite ground mobilisation.

The review committee consists of office-bearers Rajendra Sharma, Ashwini Tomar, and Gyanendra Kumar. The committee will submit its report to Chaudhary within a week, following which more meetings will be organised. On March 21, the RLD chief is scheduled to meet the party’s newly elected MLAs in Lucknow.

To reach out to farmers and consolidate its support base, the RLD is also looking to work on its “Ek Kisaan, Das Makaan (one farmer, 10 houses)” initiative. Each member will be allotted 10 houses for outreach as part of the strategy.