NEW DELHI: Rashtriya Lok Dal general secretary Trilok Tyagi on Monday projected Union minister and party chief Jayant Chaudhary as a key face of the BJP-led NDA’s campaign for the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, saying the alliance would form the next government under his leadership.Tyagi said the RLD was working to strengthen its organisation across Uttar Pradesh, “from Baghpat to Ballia and Ghaziabad to Ghazipur”, with Chaudhary at the forefront.“Politics does not mean merely wearing kurta-pyjama. It also means sitting among people and understanding their problems,” he said.“The NDA would form the government in Uttar Pradesh after the 2027 assembly elections under Jayant Chaudhary’s leadership,” he added.Recalling former prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh, Tyagi said he was opposed to giving election tickets to people who consumed alcohol. He described Charan Singh as a leader committed to his ideology and Arya Samaj principles, adding that he had no reservations about Muslims and had fielded a Muslim candidate from Ghaziabad.Tyagi said Charan Singh had united farmers and promoted Mulayam Singh Yadav as a political leader in the 1980s. Appealing to people to support Jayant Chaudhary, he said the RLD chief would emerge as a major national leader one day.He said the process of seeking and distributing election tickets would continue, but political leaders should learn to sit among people and understand their concerns.Referring to Charan Singh’s tenure, Tyagi said farmers earlier feared travelling with their carts as they faced challans on canal embankments and roads leading to tube wells. Charan Singh had worked to change the situation, he said.Tyagi claimed that Jayant Chaudhary had raised the issue of sugarcane prices, following which the government fixed the rate at Rs 400 per quintal. He said farmers earlier had to take to the streets to demand remunerative prices for potato and sugarcane, but could now raise their demands directly before the chief minister and the prime minister.
On women’s reservation, Tyagi said the demand should be raised from 33% to 50% and expressed support for it. He also said Jayant Chaudhary was working to promote women’s participation.Calling upon young people to aspire for senior positions, Tyagi said, “Become an IPS officer, an IAS officer, an officer or a professor. If you cannot become anything else, join the Lok Dal; we will certainly make you a leader.”He added that social organisations were undertaking work that governments were unable to do.