LUCKNOW: The BJP and its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), led by Jayant Chaudhary, are preparing to launch their joint campaign for the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections with a mega rally in Noorpur village in Hapur district on December 23, the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to address the rally in the ancestral village of Charan Singh, Jayant’s grandfather. RLD sources said the party had received confirmation from the Prime Minister’s Office for the event, and its organisational machinery had been mobilised to ensure its success.
The rally is expected to mark the launch of the NDA’s campaign, with a particular focus on the 136 Assembly seats in western Uttar Pradesh. Both the BJP and the RLD are seeking to consolidate their support among Jat and Gurjar voters, whose electoral influence extends across districts such as Baghpat, Hapur, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar and Moradabad. Their close links with the farming community further add to their political significance in the region.
The event is expected to be attended by Jayant, BJP president Nitin Nabin, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Pankaj Chaudhary and organisational leaders from both parties in western UP.
The rally assumes significance amid the Samajwadi Party’s efforts to expand its Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak (PDA) outreach and make inroads into the RLD’s support base.
In March, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav set the tone for his party’s election campaign with a large rally in Noida. He also reached out to the Gurjar community, promising to install a grand statue of Mihir Bhoj, the ninth-century ruler of the Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty, at Lucknow’s Gomti riverfront if his party came to power.
The 2027 electoral contest will feature a different alliance configuration from the 2022 Assembly elections, when the RLD contested in alliance with the SP and won nine seats, including Khatauli in a subsequent bypoll.
Jayant later joined the BJP-led NDA after Modi announced the Bharat Ratna for Charan Singh shortly before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The RLD won both seats allocated to it by the BJP, Baghpat and Bijnor, in the parliamentary polls.
The RLD’s switch to the NDA dealt a setback to the SP, with tensions between the former allies resurfacing recently after Akhilesh took a swipe at Jayant using the term “chavanni” (25 paise).
Without naming Jayant directly, the SP chief said his party had “turned a ‘chavanni’ into a rupee”, suggesting that someone it had helped had subsequently walked away.
The remark drew on Jayant’s own pre-2024 declaration that he was “not a chavanni” that could flip. The RLD sought to turn Akhilesh’s jibe into a matter of pride for the Jat community, whose support is a key factor in electoral contests across western Uttar Pradesh.