10 days after Jayant said joining NDA, what is BJP waiting for?

As the BJP remains mum on a formal confirmation of the alliance announced by Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary 10 days ago, workers in both parties are getting anxious. Senior leaders, however, said the tie-up was all but sealed.

Speaking to reporters at the RLD’s central office in Delhi, after paying tributes to his father and party founder late Ajit Singh on his birth anniversary, Chaudhary had confirmed that his party will join the NDA ahead of the Lok Sabha elections – after dropping several hints that this was coming.

Since then, there has been no word on the seats the RLD will contest, or any photographs of senior BJP leaders receiving Jayant. While BJP leaders in western UP are silent, confessing that decisions are being taken by the central leadership on the matter, RLD members said the party was bargaining for four Lok Sabha seats – Baghpat, Bijnor, Kairana and Mathura – all in its base of west UP.

Jayant, who last week visited Hapur district’s Noorpur, the birth place of his grandfather and former PMChaudhary Charan Singh, fobbed off questions about the reason behind his exit from the INDIA bloc saying: “When a formal announcement is made, I will openly reply to questions like what were the reasons, our idea for the future, and what we want to do for our people and our area.”

Insisting that the alliance is “finalised”, and just a formal announcement awaited, an RLD leader said: “Party leaders want Jayant to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Baghpat, the traditional seat of his family.”

One speculation is that the formal announcement might happen around the time of the unveiling of a life-size statue of Ajit Singh in Chhaprauli area of Baghpat Lok Sabha constituency. The initial date for the event was