Cracks have appeared in the opposition INDIA bloc over seat sharing with Akhilesh Yadav declaring that the Samajwadi Party does not have a tie-up with Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) for Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh.

The situation aggravated when Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav refused to give three Lok Sabha seats to Pallavi Patel’s Apna Dal (Kameravadi), which she had asked for.

In a terse statement in Lucknow on Thursday, Akhilesh Yadav asserted that their alliance with Apna Dal (Kameravadi) was confined to the 2022 UP assembly elections, drawing a clear line under any future collaboration for the upcoming 2024 polls.

The rift within the alliance became apparent when Pallavi Patel, acting president of Apna Dal (Kameravadi), announced the intent to contest three Lok Sabha seats of her preference – Phulpur, Mirzapur and Kaushambi.

However, the SP fielded Rajendra S Bind as its candidate from Mirzapur constituency, merely a few hours after Patel’s declaration, giving a loud and clear signal that Apna Dal (K) has no place in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).

Krishna Patel, the national president of Apna Dal (Kameravadi), however, defended her party’s demand for three seats citing their longstanding alliance with the INDIA bloc.

Speaking to this reporter, Pallavi Patel reiterated that the party had already asked for the Phulpur, Mirzapur and Kaushambi Lok Sabha constituencies and said the same was sounded to the Samajwadi Party months back.

She said as all these three contested seats fell within the purview of the Samajwadi Party under the existing INDIA bloc and her party had approached SP leadership.

On the other hand, SP state president Naresh Uttam Patel, in response to Patel’s assertions, clarified that no formal communication regarding the matter had been received from Pallavi Patel’s camp.

The friction between the Samajwadi Party and the Apna Dal (Kameravadi) is not without precedent, with tensions surfacing during the recent Rajya Sabha elections. Pallavi Patel had voiced grievances over what she perceived as the neglect of PDA (Picchda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) interests in candidate selection, culminating in a tense exchange with Akhilesh Yadav. Subsequently, Pallavi Patel had pledged her support solely to PDA-endorsed candidates.

Analysts suggest that the rupture in the alliance stems from unresolved tensions dating back to the 2022 UP assembly elections. Pallavi Patel’s desire to contest on the Apna Dal (Kameravadi) symbol clashed with Akhilesh Yadav’s insistence on utilising the SP symbol, resulting in a bitter contest against Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, which Patel won.

This recent disagreement marks a departure from previous electoral alliances, notably the partnership between Pallavi Patel’s faction of Apna Dal and the Congress during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which ended in defeat for Pallavi Patel’s husband, Pankaj Patel, in the Phulpur constituency.

As Uttar Pradesh braces for another electoral showdown, the fracture within the INDIA bloc underscores the complexities of coalition politics and the intricate dynamics at play in one of India’s most politically significant states.