Apna Dal (S) plays down its chief’s non-inclusion in Yogi ministry

The decision by the BJP to handpick Ramashankar Patel, its lawmaker from Madihaan in east Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur, as minister in the state government over ally Apna Dal (S) chief Ashish Patel, appears guided by the desire to raise its own homegrown Kurmi leadership in the state ahead of the 2022 UP assembly polls, leaders in both parties admit.

While that may indeed be the plan, there appears to be no immediate threat to the party’s alliance with the Apna Dal (S). The Bhartiaya Janata Party, having snapped ties with its other OBC ally, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, doesn’t appear to be doing the same to the Apna Dal (S) for the moment.

For unlike the SBSP leadership which rebelled against the BJP, the Apna Dal leaders appear resigned to the numerical dominance of the BJP, which won 312 seats in the 2017 UP assembly polls against nine MLAs of the Apna Dal.

“Ministry expansion is the prerogative of the chief minister. We can’t comment on who gets in, who doesn’t,” an Apna Dal (S) leader said, scotching rumours that Ashish Patel was eyeing a cabinet berth and rejected the ministry offer on coming to know he was being made a minister of state. “That’s wholly untrue,” the Apna Dal (S) leader said.

Ashish’s wife and former union minister Anupriya Patel, dropped from Modi’s second ministry, is now tipped to stage a possible comeback whenever Modi government carries out an expansion or reshuffle, sources indicate.

“You can talk to Ashish and he would let you know that he was never in contention. For arguments’ sake, if we believe both Ashish and Anupriya were made ministers in the state and at the Centre, don’t you think it would have created a problem for them in their party? As leaders they can’t be seen as keeping everything to themselves, isn’t it,” a BJP leader said. Apna Dal (S) already has representation in the Yogi ministry in Jai Kumar Singh (Jackie), the minister of state since March 2017 when the Adityanath government was sworn in after BJP’s spectacular win.

“We won’t call off our relationship with the ally, but like any political party we want to strengthen ourselves further and, for this reason, would attempt to reach out to all castes, including the one mentioned by you,” the leader said, revealing BJP’s plan to lessen its dependence on Apna Dal (S) for the Kurmi-connect. Kurmis with around 6 to 7% vote bank are strategically scattered in various east UP districts like Mirzapur, Sonbhadra, Pratapgarh and Kaushambi. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, BJP had got Anupriya Patel to accompany the party’s then PM candidate Narendra Modi when he had come to Varanasi for his nomination.

The BJP had in July appointed Swatantra Dev Singh Patel, a Kurmi leader who was born in Mirzapur, to head the party’s UP unit. Soon after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP sacked cabinet minister OP Rajbhar, the chief of SBSP,with whom BJP chief Amit Shah had inked a pact for the 2017 UP assembly polls. In his place, the BJP has now promoted Anil Rajbhar, its own young Rajbhar leader, as cabinet minister. The SBSP had won four assembly seats in the UP polls that it fought in alliance with the BJP.