NDA ally Apna Dal criticises BJP over lack of respect for smaller allies in UP

Apna Dal has nine MLAs in the state assembly and its leader Anupriya Patel is Union minister of state for health. The party won two LS seats in the 2014 general election.

New Delhi: Apna Dal, a key ally of the NDA in Uttar Pradesh, has expressed disappointment over BJP leadership's lack of respect to the ruling party’s allies in the state and said the party should learn lessons from its defeat in the recent assembly polls. “BJP’s central leadership should hear its allies in UP. Leaders and workers of all three NDA members in UP — BJP, Apna Dal and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party — are a frustrated lot. BJP’s UP leadership must improve its relations with the two allies,” Ashish Patel, working president of Apna Dal. “Apna Dal has been with the NDA since 2014. We want the Narendra Modi government to get re-elected and we want to continue to be part of it. But, without respect, it cannot happen,” Patel warned. Apna Dal has nine MLAs in the state assembly and its leader Anupriya Patel is Union minister of state for health. The party won two LS seats in the 2014 general election. Ashish Patel's criticism comes just days after Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) president Upendra Kushwaha quit the National Democratic Alliance and joined the opposition Mahagathbanhan or Grand Alliance, there is more ally trouble brewing for the Bharatiya Janata Party.