BJP nudges closer to poll pact with JD(U), Apna Dal in UP

NEW DELHI: The BJP on Monday edged close to clinching a seat-sharing deal with the Apna Dal, the JD(U) and a few other smaller outfits for the coming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.

With the notification for the first leg of the staggered, seven-phased elections scheduled to be issued in exactly a week from now, the BJP has expedited the task of hammering out a pre-poll pact with the Kurmi-dominated Apna Dal, and the JD(U) in an attempt to give a fillip to its chances of shoring up its fortunes in the politically-crucial state.

BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who has been assigned the task of enlisting the backing of new alliance partners for its project to wrest power in the state, met Apna Dal chief Sone Lal Patel here on Monday morning. The two leaders later drove up to JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav’s residence to seek his views on the issue.

While the exact contours of the seat-sharing pact will be made public later this week, it’s expected that the Apna Dal, which has pockets of influence in the Maharajgunj-Phulpur-Allahabad belt in eastern UP and the Bahraich-Kanpur-Bareilly zone in central UP, would be allotted 30-32 seats. The JD(U) and smaller outfits and individuals like the Bharat Vikas Party and RK Chowdhary will have to battle it out in another 14-16 seats.

The Apna Dal, it may be mentioned, had been rooting for some 75-80 seats, while the JD(U) was said to have staked its claim to 20-25 seats. For the BJP leadership, the figures cited by the leaders of the two parties were on the higher side. They were, therefore, asked to bring down their wish-lists to “more realistic” levels.

Mr Yadav and Mr Patel are likely to call on BJP president Rajnath Singh here on Tuesday before wrapping up the seat-sharing agreement. “In the 403-member House, the allies will be earmarked 44-48 seats, while the BJP will walk away with the remaining seats,” a senior BJP leader revealed.

In the 2002 Assembly polls, the Apna Dal fielded its candidates in as many as 227 seats, but could bag only three. Its vote share in the constituencies where it fought was 3.78%. The JD(U), on the other hand, put up its nominees in 16 constituencies, winning two seats. Its vote share in the seats contested by it, however, was an impressive 14.85%.

“Both the Apna Dal and the JD(U) have pre-dominantly OBC constituencies. The idea behind the entire exercise is to tell people that the BJP is serious about its “grab-UP” project, besides consolidating the party’s hold among the non-Yadav OBCs,” a senior BJP leader reasoned.

With both the Congress and the Samajwadi party engaged in competitive minorityism, the saffron leadership is hoping that the upper castes will once again rally behind it. If the BJP does indeed manage to stitch up an alliance with the Apna Dal in UP, it would succeed in conveying the message that it’s really serious about winning new friends.

Its alliance with the Akali Dal paid rich dividends in Punjab, while it secured the backing of the three-member UKD in Uttarakhand.