Putting the onus of the success of the INDIA bloc in 2024 Lok Sabha elections on the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and Mahan Dal have urged Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav to develop a ‘spirit of sacrifice’ if the alliance is genuinely committed to fighting the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Both the parties have also asked for expediting the process of the sharing of Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh in a months’ time.

“EVM ka rona mat rona (Don’t cry over the Electronic Voting Machine), If the opposition block delays the finalisation of seats, it will prove to be a damp squib against the BJP in 2024,” said Keshav Dev Maurya, the president of Mahan Dal, which was an ally of the Samajwadi Party in the 2022 UP Assembly elections.

Meanwhile, Ram Ashish Rai, state president of the RLD asked the SP president to expedite the process of seat sharing of Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. He said this process should be completed in months’ time.

“Little time is left for the general election and the process of seat sharing among the INDIA partners has to be completed at the earliest, otherwise it will be difficult to counter the BJP,” he said.

He further said that if the seat-sharing arrangement is not finalised soon, the INDIA alliance would prove to be ineffective against the BJP, which was resurgent following its recent victory in three state assembly elections.

RLD had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha and 2022 UP assembly election in alliance with the Samajwadi Party. Relations of the two parties soured over seat sharing in urban local body elections held in May last year.

However, sources in Samajwadi Party said that the party could not decide on seat sharing as the decision regarding this would be taken in the meeting of the leadership of the opposition block.