Apna Dal (S) and Apna Dal (K): A tale of political rivalries and bitter family feuds

Sonelal had contested several Assembly and Lok Sabha polls without success. In the 2002 UP Assembly polls too, he lost even though his party’s three candidates won their seats. In 2007, the party could not win any seat despite its alliance with the BJP.

After Sonelal’s demise, Krishna was made the Apna Dal president while Anupriya became the party general secretary. “In the party meeting after Dr Sonelal ji’s death, it was decided that Anupriya will look after political works while Pallavi will take care of party assets. But later she also decided to enter politics,” said Apna Dal (S) spokesperson Rajesh Patel.

In the 2012 polls, Anupriya contested from Rohaniya and emerged as the lone winner from her party. Eyeing her party’s support base among Kurmis and other non-Yadav OBC voters in eastern and central UP, the BJP tied up with the Apna Dal for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, with the latter contesting and winning two seats. Anupriya was elected from Mirzapur.

Then surfaced the rift after Krishna appointed Pallavi as the party vice-president. Anupriya called her mother’s decision “illegal and arbitrary”.

Krishna removed Anupriya as the party general secretary too. She contested the Assembly bypoll from Rohaniya vacated by Anupriya, but lost following which she alleged that Anupriya and her husband Ashish Patel had “conspired” to ensure her defeat. She also charged that their “personal ambitions” had brought the party and the family to a crossroads.

In May 2015, Krishna “expelled” Anupriya from the Apna Dal, even as both continued to stake their respective claims on the party presidentship. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi inducted Anupriya into his ministry in July 2016, Krishna charged that the BJP did not consult her.

“Following feuds, Anupriya had moved a petition in the Election Commission to claim that she was party president but the EC refused to intervene. She further moved a petition in Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court with similar prayer. We also presented the documents. Now the matter is pending at a lower court in Lucknow. In 2020, Krishna Patel floated Apna Dal (K) and got it registered last year. It will be first election for the new party,” said Vinod Kasera, Apna Dal (K) spokesperson. Pallavi is looking after its organisation while her husband Pankaj Niranjan is its general secretary.

An Apna Dal (S) leader however said it was Krishna who had moved the High Court to stake her claim over the party presidentship.

Anupriya floated the Apna Dal (S) outfit in 2016. She allied with the BJP again in the 2017 UP polls, in which her party won 9 out of 11 seats it contested. In 2018, her husband was elected member of the UP Legislative Council with the BJP help. Continuing this partnership with the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Anupriya retained her Mirzapur seat and was last year inducted into the Modi ministry again.

In the current polls, the Apna Dal (S)’s influence with the BJP-led NDA alliance has increased after Om Prakash Rajbhar’s Suheldo Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) left it.

On the formation of the two breakaway outfits, Rajesh said, “Krishna ji and Pallavi deviated from Dr Sonelal’s ideology. Their leaders even agreed to contest on the symbols of other parties. Like Krishna ji contested in Gonda and Pankaj Niranjan from Phulpur in 2019 on Congress tickets and lost. Anupriya ji never made such compromises.”

The paths of the two splinter groups have literally diverged with the Apna Dal (K) operating from a run-down office in Lucknow’s Lalbagh area while the Apna Dal (S)’s camp office is set up in a sprawling government bungalow in a VVIP zone in the city’s Mall Avenue.

Last week, the Apna Dal (K) announced it will contest seven seats, including Rohaniya and Pindara (Varanasi), Mariyahu

(Jaunpur), Marihan (Mirzapur), Ghoraval (Sonbhadra), Pratapgarh Sadar (Pratagarh) and Allahabad West (Prayagraj). A dispute has since surfaced in their alliance over seat sharing.

The Apna Dal (S) too claims its hold on these constituencies. It has so far announced candidates for 11 seats including three in Prayagraj and Kaushambi districts.

“However, Anupriya still respects her mother and stays with her whenever she visits her ancestral place in Kanpur,” Rajesh said.