Lucknow: The discontent among NDA allies in Uttar Pradesh come to the fore once again on Saturday when both Apna Dal and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) boycotted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s event at Ghazipur and Varanasi despite being invited for the same.
Anupriya Patel of Apna Dal (S) is a minister of state for health and family welfare in Modi cabinet while SBSP chief OP Rajbhar is a cabinet minister in Yogi Adityanath government. Both these parties had announced their decision in advance to boycott PM’s event over their respective issues of rift with BJP.
In a press release issued to media, SBSP chief OP Rajbhar expressed his disappointment over the fact that the postal stamp commemorated to Maharaja Suheldev by the PM did not carry his full name –
Maharaja Suheldev Rajbhar.
“It is an attempt to wipe out Rajbhars from the history,” said OP Rajbhar casting aspersion on the BJP and charging it with cheating. The 111th-century king is supposed to be an icon of Rajbhar community in
eastern UP.
In fact, OP Rajbhar won Zahoorabad assembly seat under Ghazipur parliamentary constituency for the first time in 2017 in alliance with the BJP. The other ally Apna Dal (S) is miffed over alleged ignorance and arrogance of the state BJP leadership which, the party claimed, was not according due respect to smaller allies.
Apna Dal (S) chief Ashish Patel, husband of Anupriya Patel, had claimed that his party was feeling neglected and ignored by the state leadership of the BJP. Announcing his party’s decision to keep away from PM’s function in Ghazipur, Patel had sought the intervention of PM Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah to settle the issues.
Apna Dal has two MPs in Lok Sabha. Anupriya Patel had won in 2014 from Mirzapur and Harivansh Singh from Pratapgarh in alliance with the BJP. Together with Apna Dal, BJP tally went up to 73 of 80 Lok Sabha seats in 2014.
“We want some respect in the alliance and the BJP should learn some lessons from the defeat in recently concluded elections in three states,” Patel said. He added that till the issues raised by his party were not addressed by BJP national leadership, they would not participate in any event of the BJP or the PM.