Apna Dal (Sonelal), a key ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh, has convened a meeting of its leaders on February 28 to take a final call on continuing alliance with the BJP for the coming Lok Sabha polls.
Party founder and Union Minister of State for Health, Anupriya Patel, along with her husband and MLC Ashish Patel, had met Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and her colleague Jyotriditya Scindia in New Delhi on Thursday and had a long talk to explore the possibility of a pre-poll tie-up.
The National Democratic Alliance ally had contested and won two seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in UP. It has a support base in the OBC Kurmi community in districts around Allahabad, Mirzapur, Sonebhadra and Varanasi. The Apna Dal also contested the 2017 Assembly polls and won nine seats.
“Some differences cropped up with the BJP and we gave them time to answer our questions till February 20. But they did not have any answers. So it appears that the BJP is not interested in listening to or replying to complaints of their allies,” Anupriya Patel told reporters in Bareilly on Thursday.
“Now Apna Dal is independent to take its own decision. We have called a party meeting and we will do what is decided. Whatever will be decided in the meeting, you will be informed,” she said, clarifying that there was no conflict with the BJP over seat-sharing.
In an effort to keep the flock together, BJP chief Amit Shah reached out to another NDA ally from UP, Om Prakash Rajbhar. Rajbhar’s Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party has pockets of influence in eastern UP districts bordering Bihar.
The smaller NDA allies have upped the ante after the BJP in the last two months conceded a considerable space to its partners in Bihar and Maharashtra for stitching a larger coalition for the general elections. The party has agreed to contest only 17 seats in Bihar, five less than it won in 2014, in order to bring Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) on board.
For the last few months, several Apna Dal (S) leaders have been speaking out against the BJP, alleging that the ruling party has not been taking their suggestions in running the coalition.
Sources in the BJP said that the aggressive posturing by Apna Dal (S) could be because Anupriya Patel wants more seats for her party in the Lok Sabha elections.
Apna Dal (S) president and Anupriya Patel’s husband Ashish Patel denied any conflict with the BJP on seat-sharing.
“We honestly want Prime Minister Narendra Modi to get re-elected. But for that, the state BJP has to change its attitude. The UP government appointed 300 odd people in corporations, but no Apna Dal worker was given an opportunity. If our demands are met, we will strongly support the NDA in 2019 elections,” Ashish Patel told media persons in Bareilly.