Rift within NDA surfaces, allies boycott Modi's event

New Delhi: With months to go for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the ruling NDA alliance is seemingly headed for more trouble as two of its crucial allies in Uttar Pradesh — Apna Dal and the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) — on Saturday stayed away from events attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi and Ghazipur.  The tough posturing by the two allies is being seen as an attempt at securing a better bargaining power in seat sharing negotiations ahead of the 2019 general elections.  

This is the first time that Apna Dal has taken such a tough stance at the “continuous neglect” by the Yogi Adityanath government. The party is also miffed at the fact that Union Minister of State for Health, Anupriya Patel was not invited to events related to her ministry. While the SBSP “boycotted” Prime Minister’s programmes to release the postal stamp in the name of Maharaja Suheldev.

The state unit chief of Apna Dal, Ashish Patel, said his party was “immensely hurt by the arrogant attitude of the BJP leaders in Uttar Pradesh” and accused them with “insulting party leaders and the weaker sections of the society”. He also announced that till the matter between the two allies was not settled, Apna Dal will not attend any government programmes.

The Apna Dal leader also demanded Mr Modi’s intervention in sorting out the matter of the increasing divide between the two parties.

The SBSP has claimed that the party chief and state Minister for Backward Classes Welfare Om Prakash Rajbhar’s name has been “deliberately omitted from the invitation card”.

The state of Uttar Pradesh is considered most crucial for the BJP as it elects 80 MPs to Lok Sabha and the hindi heartland state is believed to hold the key that to the power corridors of the national capital. In 2014 the state sent 71 BJP MPs and two Apna Dal legislators to the lower house.  In 2014, the party had contested two seats in a pre-poll alliance with the BJP.  While the Apna Dal has two Lok Sabha MP’s and 9 seats in the 403-member state Assembly, the SBSP has four legislators in the state.

Apna Dal has demanded that the NDA allow it to contest more Lok Sabha seats claiming that it has grown since 2014 and so it “naturally” aims to increase its tally. Apna Dal (S) will hold a state-level meeting of its party workers on January 7 to take a call on the issue, sources stated. While the SBSP has four legislators in Uttar Pradesh Assembly, the stand adopted by the party is being seen as an attempt at bargaining for a few seats to contest the forthcoming Lok sabha polls.  Recently, the Ram Vilas Paswan-led Lok Jan Shakti Party had also made similar noises regarding NDA alliances and was able to secure a better deal in the 2019 seat sharing arrangements in Bihar.  

The latest alliance troubles for the BJP come days after its Bihar ally Rashtriya Lok Samta Party parted ways with the NDA after disagreement over seat sharing arrangements ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha left the alliance upset with the BJP after it asserted that the party would not be given more than two seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Earlier in March, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) ended its four-year-old alliance with the NDA over the Centre’s refusal to grant a special category status to Andhra Pradesh.