BJP National President JP Nadda on Wednesday announced that his party will contest the upcoming Uttar Pradesh polls jointly with Apna Dal and Nishad Party.
The party will contest on 403 seats, he said. However, the seat-sharing formula is yet to be finalised and spelled out.
The announcement was made after a BJP Central Election Committee meeting that was held here with Union Ministers Amit Shah, Anurag Thakur, UP CM Yogi Adityanth, BJP national president JP Nadda, Apna Dal (S) leader Anupriya Patel and Nishad Party chief Sanjay Nishad attending it. "Today a big change is being seen in UP under the leadership of Modi ji and due to the tireless efforts of Yogi ji. Be it education, connectivity, investment, everywhere work has been done on a large scale", Nadda said during the address. Welcoming the alliance of all three parties, Patel said, "Through the alliance of BJP, Nishad Party and Apna Dal, we will contest and win the UP assembly polls, and will steer the state in the direction of development".
Ahead of this announcement, the working president of Apna Dal (Sonelal) Ashish Patel had on Tuesday said that their focus is to get "winnable seats" during seat-sharing talks with BJP. "Our complete focus is to get seats that are winnable. This is our priority," Patel said.
"Some of these seats include Pratapgarh Sadar, Vishvnathganj, Shohratgarh, Sevapuri, Chhanbey, Soraon, Jahanabad," he said.
Given the recent defections of OBC leaders from the BJP, the party is unlikely to ignore even "exaggerated" demands of Apna Dal and Nishad party having considerable influence among sizeable backward communities in the state where its main rival Samajwadi Party has switched-up many similar alliances with the smaller outfits to widen its caste net.