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The BJP held a meeting today with the Rashtriya Lok Dal, led by Ajit Singh, about seat sharing in Uttar Pradesh at the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
"BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi held an hour-long meeting with the RLD chief Ajit Singh. The party believes that an alliance with the RLD could influence results for more than a dozen seats," a senior BJP leader told PTI.
Sources add that the saffron party has also initiated discussions with some former NDA allies.
BJP leaders Jaswant Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Venkaiah Naidu and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi have been assigned to deliberate on pre-poll alliances and have already become active. Swaraj even met the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) leaders recently.
Om Prakash Chautala's INLD and Jayalalithaa's AIADMK are also being courted.
The BJP has held back its final list of candidates in view of these developments and have told their 'probable allies' to let the party into their minds till the end of August.
"The finalising of the second list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls would begin by the end of this month. The probable partners have been asked to give their inputs," sources said.
The RLD seems to be getting wooed under the same strategy. It holds considerable clout in the Jat-dominated western belt of Uttar Pradesh.
Though the RLD has only three MPs in the Lok Sabha, BJP hopes to reap a good number of seats with the support of its OBC vote-base, claim sources | 
