As Jayant makes NDA switch official, a history of RLD’s U-turns: BJP to SP and now back to BJP

After days of speculation, on Monday, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary announced that his party was quitting the INDIA alliance of Opposition parties and joining the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

This partnership will help the BJP consolidate its base among Jats, who are the RLD’s core base, and place it ahead in at least seven seats in west UP where its prospects were considered grim as per ground surveys done by the party ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Over the decades, the RLD, which enjoys significant support among Jats in west UP, has allied with the BJP, the Samajwadi Party (SP), and the Congress for political survival. The alliance with the BJP, thus, was never out of the realm of possibility.

Chaudhary Ajit Singh, who went on to become a seven-time MP, formed the RLD in 1997 to build on the legacy of his father and former PM Chaudhary Charan Singh, a stalwart farmer leader. During his tenure as UP Chief Minister, Charan Singh had pushed through major legislation that transformed the state’s agricultural economy. These land reform laws helped him develop a strong base among farmers in the region.

Before he started the RLD, Ajit played a role in the Union government as part of various governments. In December 1989, Ajit, then with the Janata Dal, became the Union Cabinet Minister for Industry in the National Front government of V P Singh. He was re-elected as a Janata Dal MP in 1991. That year, a Congress-led alliance came to power under Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao. Ajit was subsequently appointed Union Cabinet Minister of the Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in February 1995.

A year later, Ajit switched to the Congress. He contested the 1996 Lok Sabha polls on a Congress