Ajit Singh Not Into Grand Alliance. Well, Nor Are We, Says Team Akhilesh

Lucknow: Having recently shut down one major drama - belligerent father Mulayam Singh - Akhilesh Yadav is now busy with another - an increasing improbability of an alliance that includes regional heavyweight Ajit Singh.

As the head of the Rashtriya Lok Dal or RLD,  Ajit Singh has been assessed as a key component of  an anti- BJP Grand Alliance, prototype Bihar, in the coming Uttar Pradesh election. But despite weeks of negotiations, the RLD, which is strong among the Jat community, especially in Western Uttar Pradesh, remains unhitched.

Akhilesh Yadav, 43, who wants a back-to-back term as Chief Minister, has already announced that an alliance with the Congress is in the last-mile phase. Together, he says, they should be able to collate more than 300 of the state's 403 seats. On Tuesday, the Congress also confirmed that a formal confirmation of the partnership will be made "in a day or two". Sources close to Akhilesh Yadav say that he has said that he will allot 100 seats to the Congress, which can then decide how many it wants to pass on to Ajit Singh.  

That's where the plan comes unglued. The Congress reportedly has offered about 20 seats to the RLD chief's son, Jayant Choudhary, who is in touch with Congress boss Rahul Gandhi. Sources say that Ajit Singh has said he will not accept less than 30 seats, and is now leaning towards fighting the election without a partner. Akhilesh Yadav's party says it's not losing sleep over that. Kiranmoy Nanda, Vice President of the Samajwadi Party, told NDTV that the party has calculated that after 2013's communal riots of Muzaffarnagar - an Ajit Singh stronghold - the Muslims in the area, loyal to the Samajwadi Party, could be alienated by a partnership with a Jat party. Nearly 60 people were killed in the Hindu-Muslim clashes, and more than 40,000 displaced from their homes. "If the Congress wants to work out a deal with the RLD from its share, that's up to them," Mr Nanda said.

For the Congress, the chance to piggyback with Akhilesh Yadav is a kiss of life in a state where the party's political ranking has steadily and dramatically diminished, and it has taken the lead in trying to add the RLD to the mix.

In the last state election in 2012, the RLD won just nine seats. Two years later, in the general election, large swaths of Jats spurned it for the BJP. But the Jats, who form 17% of Western UP's voters, are now upset with the BJP for failing to include it in caste-based groups entitled to government jobs and places in educational institutions. At a recent gathering in Muzaffarnagar, thousands of Jats were urged by leaders not to support the BJP. Sources say the party has begun informal talks with Jat strongmen to seek their support. The BJP has already announced its candidates for Western UP, which means that a partnership with Ajit Singh, if at all, will look at other parts of the state that vote later. But the clear expression of interest has given the RLD considerable leverage as it maps its course for the election.