Apna Dal may upset other's calculations in UP bypolls

Apna Dal may upset other's calculations in UP bypolls
AMIT SHARMA

LUCKNOW MARCH 14: This party has a single legislator in the Uttar Pradesh House and no MP but when it comes to the coming Assembly bypolls, no major political outfit in the state dismisses its contestants outright. Instead, Apna Dal candidates are considered dark horses.

``We may not win but we do have the capacity to upset political calculations in the state,'' says Sonelal Patel, president of Apna Dal, the outfit formed by him in 1994.

Indeed, Chief Minister Rajnath Singh was thought to have an easy deal in Haidergarh because of an alleged understanding with the Samajwadi Party, but with the Apna Dal fielding a candidate, the going is likely to get tough.

While the BSP has fielded a Kurmi candidate, the SP first gave ticket to aBrahmin candidate but later replaced him with a Kurmi, a move perceived in political circles as an attempt to counter the Apna Dal. The Kurmis, a Backward Caste, have emerged as an impregnable vote bank for the Dal and once the Dal threw its hat into the ring, the BSP and SP had little choice but to field Kurmis in a bid to split votes.

``The SP and BSP are working as agents of the BJP and are trying to helpthe Chief Minister by fielding Kurmi candidates but we will make the contest tough for him,'' claimed Patel. Though this may sound a mite exaggerated, it cannot be denied that in the seven years since it was formed, the Apna Dal has emerged as a force to reckon with.

The rise of the Apna Dal has caused maximum damage to the BJP because the party had been enjoying almost total support of the large Kurmi vote bank which forms 18 per cent of the total population in the state. With the Dal's growing influence has adversely affected the BJP's performance during elections.

``The BJP got 29 seats in previous parliamentary polls and is bound tosuffer a setback in the next Assembly elections because we are getting stronger with each passing day,'' says a confident Patel.

The Dal had contested from 66 seats in the last parliamentary polls and its candidates polled votes ranging from 45,000 to one lakh.

``Our fight is not for forming the government but for bringing about a changein the existing system. We fight for the cause of oppressed and downtroddenbecause each political outfit treated them as vote banks and did nothingfor their welfare,'' Patel argues.

The Dal has not restricted itself to Uttar Pradesh but has only just begun a testing the waters in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. While the BJP stands to lose the most, the Samajwadi Party too is ill at ease because dissatisfied Muslims -- a major SP vote bank -- are also welcoming the Dal due a lack of options. However, the BSP, with the support of its Dalit vote bank, may have the last laugh with the Dal's rise because it will gain from the split in the BJP and SP's vote banks.