RLD Chief Jayant Choudhary Snubs BJP Offer, Says ‘Send Invitation to 700 Farmer Families’

Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Choudhary on Wednesday rebuffed the BJP’s offer to join hands with it ahead of the Uttar Pradesh elections. Taking to social media, Choudhary lambasted the BJP over the deaths of farmers agitating against the now-repealed farm laws. “Don’t send the invitation to me, send it to the families of those 700 farmers whose homes you’ve destroyed,” Choudhary tweeted in Hindi.

The RLD national president’s rebuff came after BJP leaders such as Sangeet Som, Sanjeev Balyan and Parvesh Verma extended an open invitation to him to join the saffron camp. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who met Jat leaders from Western UP at Verma’s house, also said that the RLD chief had “chosen a wrong home (alliance) this time, but doors are open for him still”, referring to the party’s alliance with Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP).

Som, the BJP’s firebrand Hindu leader, earlier in the day said, “Jayant Chaudhary ko dhokha kiya hai Akhilesh Yadav ne. Unke pitaji ne Ajit Singh ko dhokha diya tha, ab unke bete ne unke bete ko dhoka diya hai (Akhilesh Yadav has cheated Jayant. Akhilesh’s father cheated Jayant’s in the past and now he is cheating Jayant).”

Verma, BJP’s West Delhi MP, joined the chorus and said that “Chaudhary has chosen a wrong path”. The people of the Jat community will speak to him and our door is always open for him,” he added.

The BJP move to woo Choudhury is carefully crafted to puncture any consolidation of Jat-Muslim votes in western Uttar Pradesh, which could dampen the BJP’s chances of winning in the region. The ruling party is, therefore, avoiding attacking the RLD chief and is, instead, accusing the SP of cheating the Jats.

The BJP has also ensured that the videos of the SP’s Muslim candidates, allegedly threatening Jat communities to vote for them, are circulated for all to see. Be it the video of supporters of Nahid Hasan, the SP-RLD candidate from Kairana, or of SP-RLD candidate Adil Chaudhary from Meerut (South) assembly.

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