Perhaps inspired by the success of the SP-BSP alliance in the recent by-elections for Gorakhpur and Phoolpur Lok Sabha seats, a new alliance has been sealed between Samajwadi Party (SP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) for the Kairana Lok Sabha and Noorpur assembly seats, which go to bypolls on May 28.

As per the pact, RLD will contest the Kairana LS seat and SP will field its candidate from Noorpur. RLD has declared Tabassum as its candidate from Kairana.

RLD leader Jayant Chaudhary and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav finalised the alliance in Lucknow on Friday.

Confirming the alliance, RLD spokesperson Sunil Rohta said the arrangement with SP and other parties was sure to give a tough time to the BJP.

This new-found friendship will rejuvenate the RLD workers and leaders who have suffered a setback after the bad show in the last Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

Both RLD Chief Ajit Singh and son Jayant Chaudhary lost from Baghpat and Mathura seats in the 2014 LS elections. Baghpat is said to be the citadel of the RLD which was inherited by Ajit from his father Ch Charan Singh and party had always managed to win the seat, except once.

Also, in the assembly election last year, the party could not perform well though it managed to win its traditional Chhaprauli seat keeping alive its representation in the Vidhan Sabha.

However, the party expelled it’s MLA Sahendra Ramala after he voted in support of BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections. Ramala later joined BJP which resulted in the party losing the only representation in the state Assembly.

But not giving up, the RLD rank and file have started efforts to prepare the ground for the party before the parliamentary elections in 2019. Ajit Singh and his son Jayant Choudhary have launched “Jansamvad campaign” in different districts of western UP through which they are trying to revive their Muslim-Jat winning equation which has worked for the party in the past elections until the fierce riots of Muzaffarnagar in 2013. After the riots, Muslims drifted away from the party and so did Jats, the traditional vote bank of the party.

During his recent visit here for the Jansamvad Campaign, Ajit Singh had called upon the farmers and Muslims to unite. “BJP’s bundle of lies is damaging social fabric, harmony and brotherhood among people of different castes and communities and we are up to expose this before the public,” he said, blaming BJP for dividing people on caste and religion lines.

The by-election for the Kairana and Noorpur (Bijnor) seats will take place on May 28. Kairana seat was vacated after the death of BJP MP Hukum Singh and Noorpur after the demise of Lokendra Singh, A BJP MLA, who died in a road accident.

RLD’s Amir Alam and Anuradha Singh have respectively been the MPs from Kairana in 1999 and 2004.