Lucknow: Losing of state party status for the Rashtriya Lok Dal in Uttar Pradesh is like history repeating itself.
From being an unrecognized, registered party in 1999 to five Lok Sabha MPs in 2009, a two-time union minister (2001 & 2011), 14 MLAs and six ministers in UP (2003-2007) and now back to the status of an unrecognized registered party - the Rashtriya Lok Dal's political journey has come full circle.
When the Election Commission withdrew the state/regional party status from the RLD in UP for its failure to get the required 6 per cent of the total votes polled in the assembly elections, the party suffered a setback -- especially at a time when it was looking to resurrect itself under the leadership of Jayant Chaudhary. The party regained a toehold in the 2022 UP elections when it allied with the Samajwadi Party and won eight seats. After Ajit Singh's demise in 2020, his son Jayant Chaudhary took over the reins of the party and the resurrection of the RLD meant a lot for his political future.
Losing the state party status may not have much impact on the RLD's prospects but losing its poll symbol -- the handpump -- may take away its identity.
Jayant Chaudhary has already asked the State Election Commission (SEC) to "reserve the RLD's election symbol - 'handpump' - for only the RLD candidates on all seats in the urban local body polls going to be held in UP."
RLD spokesman Anil Dubey said the party had formally made its case before the state election commission, urging it to act as desired by the party chief Jayant Chaudhary.
"In any case, the SEC has not done any review so we will get to keep the handpump. We hope the SEC will maintain status quo with regard to the party's status, more so when poll notification has already been issued," he said.
State election commission official S K Singh said the EC and SEC are two different bodies with different sets of rules and the ECI's decision to derecognize the RLD as a state-level party does not necessarily apply to it in the civic polls.
For the RLD, retaining its election symbol is more important than retaining its state party status. "The handpump is now synonymous with the party and since we are essentially a farmer-based party, the handpump holds meaning for us," said a party leader.
A former MLA agreed that a new symbol would mean new challenges for the party which is preparing for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. "It will mean a Herculean effort to popularize a new symbol. We are praying that we get to keep the handpump which had wide acceptability among our voters," he said.
—IANS