RLP will influence voters in favour of BJP in nearly 18 seats in Raj: Beniwal

Rashtriya Loktantrik Party leader Hanuman Beniwal has claimed that his party will influence voters in favour of his alliance partner BJP in nearly 18 seats in Rajasthan.

The BJP and the RLP announced an alliance on Thursday under which Beniwal will contest the Lok Sabha elections on Nagaur seat as RLP candidate.

Apart from Rajasthan, the BJP is hopeful of Beniwal's influence over several seats in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and other states in the general elections.

"The RLP fielded candidates on 57 seats in the assembly elections held last year and three, including me, won. My party's vote share was 2.4 per cent in the assembly elections. RLP's supporters and Jat voters are in significant number in 18-19 Lok Sabha seats and they will be influenced in favour of the BJP," Beniwal said.

"Besides, I will be campaigning in support of BJP candidates in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab where my party workers are active," he told PTI on Friday.

Beniwal, a former BJP MLA, has been a critic of ex-chief minister Vasundhara Raje. He has targeted Raje on many occasions in the past, both inside and outside the Assembly.

When asked whether the alliance was a kind of jolt to Raje, who is presently BJP's national vice president, Beniwal said their mission is to make Narendra Modi the country's prime minister again.

"BJP's senior leadership in New Delhi wanted an alliance. I was in touch with the party's poll in-charge Prakash Javadekar and other leaders of RSS background for the alliance and the party wanted me to contest on Nagaur seat which I accepted," he said.

Union HRD minister Javadekar announced the alliance in a press conference at the party office here on Thursday.

When asked whether the alliance was a kind of a message to Raje, a BJP leader said the party wants to achieve its mission-25 (of winning all the 25 Lok sabha seats) and Jat voters can influence poll results therefore the alliance was made.

Another BJP leader said the party will support Beniwal in Nagaur. "Beniwal was a BJP member earlier and he has the BJP ideology. The party will extend him full support," party's Nagaur district president Ramkant Sharma said.

Beniwal was elected as BJP MLA for the first time in 2008 but later left the party following differences with Raje.

He won the 2013 assembly elections as an independent MLA and he formed the RLP ahead of the 2018 assembly elections and three candidates, including himself, won the elections.

The Lok Sabha elections will be held in two phases in the state where 13 constituencies will go to poll on April 29 and remaining 12 seats on May 6.

Nagaur, where the Congress has named former MP Jyoti Mirdha as the party's candidate, is among 12 seats which will go to poll in the second phase.