Sulking UP ally Apna Dal steps up heat on BJP over berths

NEW DELHI: Trouble is brewing for NDA in Uttar Pradesh because ally Apna Dal has been sending feelers to BJP for long for a cabinet berth in the state for its chief Ashish Patel and at least five seats for its candidates in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Although Patel’s wife and senior leader Anupriya Patel was inducted in the Narendra Modi government as minister of state for health, Apna Dal has been sulking ever since the BJP-led government assumed office in UP and the ally did not get a full cabinet rank minister in the state.

The party has been demanding a cabinet berth in UP, reasoning a smaller ally, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) of Om Prakash Rajbhar, which has only four MLAs, has been given a cabinet berth while Apna Dal’s claim has been negated even when it has nine MLAs. “Apna Dal’s grouse is that while a party with nine MLAs got only a minister of state in state government, a party with four MLAs got a cabinet berth in Uttar Pradesh,” a state BJP leader told ET. “They are also indicating they want at least five Lok Sabha seats in 2019 to fight.”


The party, which recently blamed the BJP of not showing respect to its allies, is also getting jittery as UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath has neither carried out a cabinet expansion nor a reshuffle since his government was formed nearly 21 months ago. Ashish Patel was made an MLC in UP by the BJP government earlier this year, while one of its MLAs, Jai Kumar Singh, was made a minister of state. Apna Dal was allotted only two seats in the 2014 elections and it won both. The party won nine of the 11 seats given to it in the 2017 assembly elections.