2 prominent RLD leaders in UP quit party ahead of 2024 LS polls

LUCKNOW: In a setback to Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), the party's State Working President Manjeet Singh and State Chief of Minority Wing Arif Mehmood have resigned from the party and its primary membership.

In his resignation sent to RLD Chief Jayant Chaudhary, both have blamed a senior party functionary for ignoring the interests of the Muslims, farmers and the Jat community.

While Chaudhary did not name the leader, party sources said that his reference was towards RLD National General Secretary Trilok Tyagi, who happens to be the National General Secretary (Organisation).

When contacted, Tyagi refused to comment, saying that the matter rested with the party leadership which will take a call on future course of action.

Manjeet Singh said that the voices of the party leaders who wanted to raise issues related to farmers and the minority community were repeatedly crushed.

Singh added that he has been working for the party whole-heartedly since the days of its formation under the leadership of former party President and Jayant's father, Chaudhary Ajit Singh.

Though Singh remained tight-lipped over his next move, sources said that he apparently planned to make a switch over to some other political outfit in the run-up to 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Likewise, Arif Mehmood too resigned from the party, almost a month after a raging row erupted over cancellation of a room allotted to the minority wing in the state party office in Lucknow.

The development triggered a spate of resignations by a host of minority leaders, including Naushad Khan and Shabbir Ali, Minority Wing Presidents of the Kashi and Bundelkhand regions, respectively.

Both Khan and Ali, in their letters sent to Jayant had said that the act of "snatching" a room at the party office was nothing short of "humiliation" for the party workers from the minority community. The incident had culminated in the dissolution of the party's minority wing altogether.

Mehmood categorically blamed Tyagi and party's office In-Charge Ajay Tomar of "insulting" the leaders from the minority community for the past few months.

Mehmood said that he apprised Jayant about the issue, but the RLD Chief did not take cognisance.

The resignation by two state leaders in RLD had exposed the underlying fissures within the outfit, an ally of the Samajwadi Party and one of the key constituents of the opposition INDIA bloc in Uttar Pradesh.

Sources said that the Jat leadership within the RLD exercised its dominance even as Muslim leadership jostled for additional space within the party.