Apna Dal(K) announces new alliance with AIMIM in UP

Lucknow, March 31: The Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) have joined hands to form a new alliance for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh.

Ahead of the alliance announcement, Apna Dal(K) leader Pallavi Patel had met AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi in Hyderabad three days ago.

An official announcement of the alliance was made at a joint press conference of Pallavi Patel and Asaduddin Owaisi in Lucknow on Sunday.

The alliance came up with a new slogan -- PDM (Pichhda, Dalit and Musalman) which has been tweaked from SP’s PDA (Pichhda Dalit Alpsankhyak).

On March 23, the Apna Dal (K) had withdrawn its candidates from the three Lok Sabha seats -- Phulpur, Mirzapur and Kaushambi -- in Uttar Pradesh.

In a statement, the Krishna Patel-led party stated that it had cancelled the list of candidates it had declared for the Lok Sabha elections until further notice.

Earlier, the party had said that it wanted to contest three seats as part of the INDIA bloc in Uttar Pradesh.

The Apna Dal (K) had contested the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls in alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP), with Patel contesting on an SP ticket.

The alliance between Apna Dal (K) and AIMIM came following a rift between the former and the SP during the recent Rajya Sabha election. Patel had insisted that she would only vote for the PDA candidate (SP) Ramji Lal Suman.

Meanwhile, former UP Minister Swami Prasad Maurya, who recently parted ways with the Samajwadi Party, on Sunday said he will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Kushinagar as a candidate of his Rashtriya Shoshit Samaj Party (RSSP).

Claiming that he held talks with the INDIA bloc constituents from Uttar Pradesh over seat-sharing but got no response, Maurya also announced that S.N. Chauhan will be his party's candidate from the Deoria Lok Sabha seat.

The names of other candidates of the party would be announced soon, he added.

The SP and Congress have decided on a seat-sharing arrangement as part of the INDIA bloc in Uttar Pradesh. As part of the deal, the Congress will contest 17 of the state's 80 Lok Sabha constituencies and the SP will field its candidates in 63 seats.

Uttar Pradesh will vote in seven phases from April 19 to June 1. Votes will be counted on June 4.