Exodus hits RLD, top leader quits
Policemen spray coloured water to disperse goverment employees during a protest march at Jehangir Chowk in Srinagar on Tuesday.
There is trouble in Jat land and an exodus is gradually building up in the Rashtriya Lok Dal.
After former MP Anuradha Choudhury parted ways with RLD president Choudhary Ajit Singh on the eve of Lok Sabha elections, citing the alliance with the Congress as a reason for her departure, it is now senior party leader and former minister Kokab Hamid who has severed his ties with the RLD.
Mr Kokab Hamid, one of the senior most leaders in the RLD, told reporters in Baghpat that he was upset with the frequent change of alliances by the RLD. “The party seems to have lost its direction and is no longer sticking to its ideology. In every election, we are opting for new alliances which only serve to erode the party’s base. This erosion was more than evident in the results of the recent assembly polls,” he said.
RLD leaders claim that the main reason behind Mr Kokab Hamid’s decision to walk out of the party was denial of the Vidhan Parishad ticket to him. “He has just lost the elections and wanted to be nominated to the Vidhan Parishad. Since someone else was given the ticket, he has blamed the party for shifting away from its ideological base. Did he realise this only after he was denied a nomination to the upper house?” said a party functionary.
According to sources close to Mr Kokab Hamid, it is the growing disillusionment of Jats with the RLD that has driven him out of the party.
“Mr Kokab Hamid is a leader who has his ears to the ground and he can sense the growing anger among Jats with the politics of Choudhary Ajit Singh. Incidents of atrocities on farmers took place in Tappal and Bhatta Parsaul during the BSP regime but Choudhury Ajit Singh chose not to agitate on the issue,” said a source.
Then the issue of inclusion of Jats in the central OBC list has also been pending since long but Choudhury Ajit Singh preferred a ministry for himself instead of negotiating with the centre on the issue.
This has further angered the Jat community and discredited the RLD which reflected in the results.
Interestingly, before it entered into an alliance with the Congress, the RLD was consistently attacking the UPA government for inflation, scams and anti-farmer policies reflected in hike fertiliser and diesel prices.
If sources are to be believed, more RLD leaders are preparing to quit the party in the coming days. Most of them are said to be negotiating with the Samajwadi Party which is currently pursuing pro-farmer policies in the state.
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