With Rashtriya Lok Dal of Ajit Singh deciding to support Samajwadi Party in the Firozabad Lok Sabha by-election, a new front seems to be taking shape in the state politics.

After joining hands with Kalyan Singh to woo the Lodha votes, the SP hurriedly forged an alliance with the RLD in a bid to counter the aggressive campaign by the Congress in the upcoming bypoll in Firozabad.

On the other hand, for the RLD, the decision to go ahead with this new alliance and dumping its previous ally, the BJP, was driven by an instinct of survival. Although both the parties maintain their political understanding is confined to the Firozabad by-election, in reality, they have very few options available at hand.

Also, the desperation in both camps is evident from the way they joined hands in the last stages of the election campaign in Firozabad.

While the SP, which has fielded Mulayam Singh Yadav’s daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav, was jittery after Rahul Gandhi’s massive rally in support of the Congress candidate Raj Babbar last week, the RLD has been facing an uncertain future since NDA’s defeat in the Lok Sabha election in May. At one stage, the RLD had made overtures to the Congress, but the Congress showed little interest in any tie-up with local parties.

Therefore, joining hands with Mulayam and Kalyan Singh was the only option available to the RLD to stay relevant in state politics. The party lost no time in announcing support for Dimple Yadav, although its previous ally BJP has fielded a candidate in Firozabad.

... contd.