SP, Cong take a dig at Jayant for no seat on stage at NDA meet

Mohua.Chatterjee
New Delhi: Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary, an alliance partner of BJP-led NDA was seated among the audience at the meeting of NDA parliamentary party on Friday, and was conspicuous by his absence from the dais where the rest of alliance party members sat alongside Narendra Modi. The politician however, reacted to it by posting on X: “NDA (New - Developed - Aspirational India) has chosen our Prime Minister for a historic third term, Narendra Modi ji!”
That didn’t stop the opposition from taking a jibe at Jayant.In a post on X in Hindi, Samajwadi Party media cell said members of parties with one seat each were given a place on the stage but not Chaudhary who has two MPs. “BJP’s hatred towards Jat community and its false respect for late Chaudhary Charan Singh and Chaudhary Ajit Singh has been exposed.”
The attempt at drawing a wedge between RLD and BJP leadership was evident. In fact Chaudhary had hobnobbed with INDIA bloc for a while before crossing over to NDA, before the polls.
“If Jayant Chaudhary is really a farmers’ well-wisher, he should distance himself from NDA and raise his voice against BJP in farmers’ interests. One should not trade self-respect and the interests of farmers with BJP due to petty and immediate greed,” Samajwadi Party media cell handle stated. Apna Dal (S) president Anupriya Patel and Hindustan Awami Morcha (HAM) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi, both of whom have won just one seat each in the current Lok Sabha elections, were seated on stage.
Congress Uttar Pradesh president Ajay Rai also pointed to this. “BJP has a habit of doing such things. It has a habit of insulting its smaller allies.”