Jayant Chaudhary named SP-RLD candidate ending buzz about Dimple Yadav's Rajya Sabha entry

Lucknow: Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary was declared as the third candidate for Rajya Sabha jointly by the Samajwadi Party and the RLD, putting to rest speculation that Akhilesh Yadav was set to nominate wife Dimple Yadav in his place and go back on a pre-poll promise between him and Chaudhary.

Election to 11 seats in the Rajya Sabha from UP will take place on June 10 and the SP is on course to winning three seats given its numerical strength in the assembly. It has already announced candidature of Kapil Sibal and former SP MP Javed Ali.

It was learnt that some developments caused the SP chief to consider Dimple Yadav for nomination. The RLD is the biggest ally of the SP in the state and is especially instrumental for the party to sustain support of the Jats in western UP.


RLD leaders were known to have been upset with the development and RLD MLAs also met Yadav on Wednesday to discuss the issue. It is learnt they told Yadav that RLD workers would not take this well, especially after working hard for the election and having already compromised earlier with some seat allocations.

Chaudhary is now gearing up to hold a conference on Sunday in Delhi on the death anniversary of his late grandfather, former PM Chaudhary Charan Singh, where he will discuss taking the issue of caste-based census and constitution of an "equal opportunity" or "social justice" commission to work towards providing equal opportunities to aspirants from rural areas in the private sector.

Those expected to attend include former CPM MP Subhashini Ali, RLD MP Manoj Jha, Meghalaya governor SP Malik, former RJD MP Sharad Yadav, AAP MP Sanjay Singh, while SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is also invited.