Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) leader and Sirathu MLA Pallavi Patel on March 22 said that the main parties of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc should clarify whether her party is still in the alliance or not, hinting that she was open to considering an alliance with the ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
Ms. Patel, daughter of party president Krishna Patel, claimed that the Apna Dal (K) was suffering the same plight in Uttar Pradesh as the Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) did in Bihar.
On March 21, Akhilesh Yadav declared that his Samajwadi Party’s 2022 alliance with the Apna Dal (K) had been broken and the two parties were not allied for the upcoming Lok Sabha election. His statement came soon after the Apna Dal (K) unilaterally announced that it would contest three Lok Sabha seats under the INDIA bloc in U.P. The SP and Congress, both INDIA partners, have already split the U.P. Lok Sabha pie between them, with the Congress to contest 17 seats and the SP fielding candidates in the remaining 63 seats.
Clarifications needed
Ms. Patel responded, saying, “SP president Akhilesh Yadav and the main party of the Opposition bloc INDIA at the national level, Congress, should inform what is the status of our party. They should clarify if we are a part of the INDIA bloc or not. What happened with Nitish Kumar Ji in Bihar, citing lack of support and indecisiveness, the same is happening with Krishna Patel in Uttar Pradesh.”
She added that if any alliance proposal came from the NDA , the party organisation would take a decision. “No proposal has been received till date from the NDA, but if it comes, then the organization of the party will take a decision on it,” she said.
The Kurmi-centric Apna Dal was founded by the late Sonelal Patel during the 1990s, but has since seen a vertical split. One faction, named the Apna Dal (Sonelal), is led by Ms. Krishna Patel’s estranged daughter and Union Minister Annupriya Patel. The other faction is led by her other daughter Pallavi Patel. Both factions claim to enjoy considerable support among the Kurmi community in pockets of eastern U.P. The Kurmis, an influential Other Backward Classes (OBCs) community has a sizeable presence in roughly 10 Parliamentary seats in the state.
