The Rashtriya Lok Dal will be joining the NDA, party chief Jayant Chaudhary made it clear today, indicating that the deal is sealed with workers and leaders on board. All that remains is the formal announcement, which can be expected shortly after the birth anniversary of his father Ajit Singh, which is being marked today.

Asked about reports that his party leaders are not too happy about the decision, Mr Chaudhary said, “I took this decision after speaking to all the MLAs and workers of my party. There was no big planning behind this decision, we had to take this decision within a short time because of the situation”.

“We want to do something good for the people,” he added.

#WATCH |Delhi: On joining NDA, RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary says, “…I took this decision after speaking to all the MLAs and workers of my party. There was no big planning behind this decision, we had to take this decision within a short time because of the situation. We want to… pic.twitter.com/oCokYUX8gA

— ANI (@ANI) February 12, 2024

This was the clearest speech from Mr Chaudhary on the subject that had kept the Opposition, especially Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi party on tenterhooks so far. On Friday, asked whether he was ready to join the BJP, the 45-year-old had said, “Is there anything left to be done? How can I refuse?”

While the BJP had made its offer to the RLD that week, promising a Rajya Sabha seat, two Lok Sabha seats (Baghpat and Bijnor likely) and two ministerial berths from Uttar Pradesh, Mr Chaudhary had been on the verge of acceptance. Then the BJP sweetened the deal on Friday with a Bharat Ratna for Chaudhary Charan Singh, former Prime Minister and the grandfather of Mr Chaudhary.

“Dil jeet liya mera (They have won my heart),” Jayant Chaudhary had said on the occasion, after which he was asked whether he was ready to join the BJP.

The defection of the RLD on the heels of Nitish Kumar in Bihar will reinforce the perception that the INDIA bloc is a united front and give credence to the BJP’s divided house claims. Besides Nitish Kumar,
Arvind Kejriwal with his Aam Aadmi Party and Mamata Banerjee with her Trinamool Congress have already done the heavy lifting.

The change of camp by the RLD is also likely to cost the bloc a chunk of Jat votes in western Uttar Pradesh. While the party may not have the heft to win too many seats on its own, the support of Jats can make the difference between victory and defeat in a handful of seats including Baghpat, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Aligarh, Agra and Moradabad.

Western Uttar Pradesh has 29 of the state’s 80 seats. The RLD was offered seven by the Samajwadi Party last month, but the lack of clarity over the constituencies had created confusion and uncertainty in the RLD ranks.

The Samajwadi Party, which has been in denial so far, is yet to comment on the RLD chief’s remarks.

Farmers leaders who met Union ministers in Chandigarh for six hours alleged the government was not sincere about the talks, even as tractor-trolleys set out from different parts of Punjab to go to Delhi. In the national capital, massive deployment of police and paramilitary personnel, besides multi-layered barricading have been made to seal the city at Singhu, Tikri, and Ghazipur.

“The talks did not lead to any result. We will start our march to Delhi at 10 am. We will, however, discuss the proposals given by the government in our forum. The government is clearly at fault here,” a farmer leader told reporters after the meeting ended.

They discussed repealing the Electricity Act, 2020, and compensation for farmers who were killed in the violence in Lakhimpur Kheri. An agreement was reached between the government and the farmer groups to withdraw the cases filed against them during the year-long protest against the now-scrapped controversial farm laws.

However, the meeting ended before both sides could work out a solution to the demand for minimum support price (MSP) guarantee law, farm loan waiver, and implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations.

In the national capital, massive deployment of police and paramilitary personnel, besides multi-layered barricading have been made to seal the city at Singhu, Tikri, and Ghazipur.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha have announced that more than 200 farmer unions would head to Delhi to press the Centre to accept their demands, including the enactment of a law to guarantee a minimum support price (MSP) for crops.

The Union ministers, including Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal and Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda, held the second round of talks with the farmer leaders at the Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration in Chandigarh.

During press conference, Arjun Munda said that issues can be resolved through dialogue. “We are still hopeful and we welcome talks,” he said.

SKM (Non-Political) leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee general secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher, among others, attended the meeting that went on for over four hours.

The first meeting with the Union ministers was held on February 8, in which detailed discussions with the leaders of farmer organisations took place.

On Monday, tractor-trolleys in large numbers set out from different parts of Punjab to join the planned farmers’ march towards Delhi. The farmer leaders who later participated in the talks in Chandigarh held a meeting in Amb Sahib in Punjab’s Mohali before leaving for the city.

The authorities in Haryana have fortified the state’s borders with Punjab at many places in Ambala, Jind, Fatehabad, Kurukshetra, and Sirsa using concrete blocks, iron nails, and barbed wire to scuttle the proposed march.

The Haryana government has imposed restrictions on gathering of large groups of people in 15 districts.

Besides a legal guarantee for MSP, the farmers are also demanding implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations, pensions for farmers and farm labourers, farm debt waiver, withdrawal of police cases and “justice” for victims of the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, withdrawal from the World Trade Organisation, and compensation for families of farmers who died during the previous 2020 agitation, among others.

Traffic restrictions have been put in place and security arrangements intensified at the Singhu, Ghazipur and Tikri borders in Delhi. The police are using drones to keep an eye on the ground situation, and are fully prepared to deal with any law and order situation, they said.

Motorists had a hard time commuting between Delhi and town in the National Capital Region (NCR) on Monday. The Haryana Police and the Chandigarh Police have already issued traffic advisories, asking commuters to take alternative routes.

Ahead of the meeting with Union ministers, farmers’ leader Dallewal alleged many agriculturists, who were coming from other states, including Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, to support the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march, have been detained, and sought their release.

Dallewal claimed that several farmers coming from Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, owing allegiance to the SKM, have been detained in Bhopal.

“On one side, they (the Centre) are holding dialogues with us and on the other hand they are detaining our people. Then how will this dialogue take place?” the SKM (Non-Political) leader said.

The farmers’ meeting with Union ministers in Chandigarh — a last-ditch effort of the government that got singed two years ago over farm law protests — continued almost till midnight. Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal and Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda led the talks with the farmer leaders.
Post 11 pm, the two sides came to an agreement on repealing the Electricity Act 2020, compensation to farmers killed in Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh, and the withdrawal of cases against farmers during the farmers’ movement.
But there was no consensus on the three key demands — enactment of a law to guarantee a Minimum Support Price for all crops, farmer loan waiver and the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission recommendations.
After the meeting ended just before midnight, Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee’s Sarwan Singh Pandher said the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march is on. “Two years ago, the government had promised to meet half of our demands in writing… We wanted to resolve the issue peacefully. But the government is not sincere. They just want to waste time,” a farmers’ representative told reporters.
The Delhi Police have taken every possible step to stop the march from entering Delhi. There is heavy police presence at the Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur borders. The police have imposed a month-long ban on public meetings and tractors and trolleys entering the city.
Prohibitory orders banning large gatherings have been declared in these areas. Much of the roads have been barricaded with concrete blocks and barbed wire. The movement of commercial vehicles has been stopped.
The authorities in Haryana have also fortified the state borders with Punjab at many places, including Ambala, Jind, Fatehabad, Kurukshetra and Sirsa. Concrete blocks, iron nails and barbed wire have been used to barricade the roads and block the protesters from entering the state.
Haryana has also invoked the 2021 law against public and private property damage that makes perpetrators pay. The state home department has directed the civil and police officers to stick to the rule.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha had announced ‘Delhi Chalo’ march. The farmers have taken a hard line, armed with the precedent of the government’s capitulation and withdrawal of the farm laws following the year-long agitation in 2020-21.
The Kisan Mazdoor Morcha which has the allegiance of more than 250 farmers’ unions, and the Samyukta Kisan Morcha — a platform of another 150 unions — called the protest in December. The protest, coordinated from Punjab, is meant to remind the government of the promises it made two years ago.