LUCKNOW: In a further setback to the Jayant Chaudhary-led Rashtriya Lok Dal days after its defeat in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, its state unit president Masood Ahmed resigned from the party on Saturday accusing leaders of the SP-RLD alliance of selling tickets and behaving in a dictatorial manner.
In a letter to Chaudhary, Ahmed levelled serious allegations against him and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav.
"Akhilesh-ji gave tickets to whomever he wanted while collecting money, due to which the alliance was forced to contest elections without booth presidents," he wrote.
He also accused the chiefs of the RLD and the SP of acting like dictators and cited the case of Swami Prasad Maurya, who quit the BJP to join the SP just before the polls.
"Maurya-ji was sent to Fazilnagar without information and he lost the election. Akhilesh-ji and you acted like dictators because of which the alliance had to face defeat. My suggestion is that this alliance should be deferred until Akhilesh-ji gives equal respect," he said.
He alleged that tickets were sold in the assembly elections.
"In an attempt to collect money, the announcement of candidates was not done in time and the elections were fought without preparations. On almost all the seats, nominations were filed on the last day. None of the candidates were told from where they would contest. During the most precious time, all the workers were sitting at the feet of either you or Akhilesh-ji and no preparation for the elections could be made," he claimed.
"SP had three candidates for each seat, which sent a wrong message to the public. The result was that the alliance lost at least 50 seats by a margin of 200 to 10,000 votes," he said.
Ahmed alleged that even after his cautioning, Chandra Shekhar Azad of the Azad Samaj Party was humiliated, due to which the Dalit vote shifted from the SP-RLD alliance to the BJP.
In the recently concluded assembly elections, the Samajwadi Party won 111 seats and the Rashtriya Lok Dal eight.
The BJP bagged 255 seats in the 403-member assembly.