BJP president Amit Shah | Photo Credit: BCCL

Lucknow: 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.

Now the Anupriya Patel-led Apna Dal has warned the BJP-led NDA that it may have to rethink its alliance with the national party as its workers are not being given respect in Uttar Pradesh.

Apna Dal national president Ashish Patel blamed the Uttar Pradesh BJP leadership for showing disrespect to his party workers and ignoring them. Citing an example, Patel said party leader and Lok Sabha MP Anupriya Patel had not been invited for the inauguration of a medical college in the state.

“After the losses in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan, the NDA must understand that the workers of the three parties of the alliance in Uttar Pradesh are demotivated. MPs, MLAs, and ministers are all unhappy. The central leadership needs to intervene and understand the cause of the problem. Otherwise, the NDA will suffer big in Uttar Pradesh,” Patel told reporters.

“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.

While blaming the state BJP leadership for the problem, the Apna Dal president said they want a respectable number of seats allocated to it to contest in Uttar Pradesh for the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections. “Our strength has increased,” he stated.

Meanwhile, when asked to comment on the possible Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party alliance in the state, Patel only said that the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh was very good during her government’s time.