LUCKNOW: After facing expulsion from Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) following cross-voting in favour of the ruling BJP in recently-concluded Rajya Sabha elections, MLA from Chhaprauli Sahendra Singh Ramala has opened a front against his party chief Chaudhary Ajit Singh.
The sacked MLA has charged Ajit Singh with trying to exploit his clout and mounting pressure on him to strike a tie-up with saffron party in the state.
“Chaudhary Ajit Singh had a win-win situation. On one hand, he wanted me to strike an alliance for the party with the BJP, on the other he had opened a parallel channel with the BSP for a tie-up,” said Ramal while talking to media persons in his constituency on Monday.
The MLA claimed that to keep the BSP chief in good humour, the RLD chief had made him an escape goat in the whole issue.
“He expelled me from the party to please Mayawati even without giving me a chance to present my side of the story,” Ramala maintained.
He added that Ajit Singh had been mounting pressure on him for the last six months to initiate talks with BJP leaders and cobble up an alliance with RLD as he wanted to the tie-up with the ruling party to come through before 2019 general elections.
Claiming that he voted in favour of the BJP candidate in public interest, Ramala accused Ajit Singh of using him for the furtherance of his own (Ajit Singh’s) political interests.
Ramala claimed that RLD leadership had not issued any guideline to him before vote “Ajit Singh wants his son Jayant Chaudhary to fight Kairana bypoll, so he sacrificed me,” Ramala said adding that he voted for the BJP to ensure the development of his constituency and his people.