LUCKNOW: Two components from the INIDA bloc walked out of the alliance in Uttar Pradesh last week right when the INDI alliance leaders were holding a massive rally to showcase opposition unity in New Delhi.
SP MLC Swami Prasad Maurya and SP ally Apna Dal (K), led by Krishna Patel, wife of the prominent late OBC leader Sonelal Patel had quit the opposition alliance.
Meanwhile, Apna Dal (K) vice-president Pallavi Patel announced her party’s tie-up with Assaduddin Owasi-led AIMIM AIMIM in UP.
Pallavi Patel also named her alliance as PDM (Pichchhda, Dalit and Musalman) Nyay Morcha, a modified form of Akhilesh Yadav’s PDA (Pichchda, Dalit and Alpsankhyak).
With this, the INDIA bloc now holds on to just two kep partners- the Congress and Samajwadi Party in UP.
However, one seat of Bhadohi has been spared for Congress turncoat Lalitesh Pati Tripathi who will contest on TMC ticket.
Traced back to 2022, the SP had with great efforts managed to tie an alliance with various parties including the SBSP, RLD, Apna Dal (K), Janwadi Party, Mahan Dal and Azad Samaj Party of Chandrashekar Azad.
While, the SP did reap the benefits of the alliance which reflected in its tally that went from 47 to 111 seats in the UP Assembly,
The SP had reaped the benefit of that umbrella alliance and took its tally from 47 to 111 seats in UP Assembly. However, the main opposition party failed to keep the flock together as the differences between the SP and allies started cropping up.
The first one to leave the alliance was OP Rajbhar followed by Jayant Chaudhury, Keshavdev Muarya of Mahan Dal, Sanjay Chauhan of Janwadi Party and Krishna Patel of Apna Dal (K). Notably, Pallavi Patel of Apna Dal (K) is an MLA from Sirathu seat in Kaushambi on SP ticket.
Reacting to her party’s tie-up with AIMIM in UP, SP national spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhury sought her resignation as Sirathu MLA before charting her own course with an other ally.
Not only this, but the likes of Swami Prasad Maurya and Dara Sigh Chauhan, who had hopped to SP just ahead of 2022 assembly polls leaving the Yogi cabinet, also parted ways from it in due course of time.
While Swami Prasad Maurya resigned from SP and also from UP Council floating his own Rashtriya Shoshit Samaj Party, Dara Singh Chauhan, who was an MLA from Ghosi quit the SP and Assembly both rejoining the BJP. He is now a minister in Yogi's cabinet besides being a BJP MLC.
Swami Prasad Maurya, who had expressed his desire to contest Lok Sabha election and had sought INDI Alliance support, announced his candidature from Kushinagar on his own when failed to evoke any response from the opposition bloc.
Similarly, Chandrashekhar Azad of the Azad Samaj Party heading Bhim Army as well, announced his candidature from Nagina seat in western UP. He has filed his nomination papers after he failed to get it from Akhilesh Yadav.
Nagina is set to go to polls in the first phase on April 19. Moreover, in a surprising move, the Union Home Ministry accorded ‘Y’ category security of Bhim Army chief on Sunday saying it was in consonance with the intelligence inputs indicating threat to his life.
The move is intriguing for the opposition bloc without any doubt. In the given scenario, the INDI alliance in UP is limited only to SP and Congress wherein Akhilesh Yadav has spared 17 seats for the Congress including Amethi and Rae Bareli keeping rest 63 for itself and smaller allies who are no more there.
In fact, all the smaller players had been seeking at least one seat each from SP but Akhilesh did not oblige them leading to their decision to chart their own course making the path of INDI alliance difficult in UP.