Bhartiya Janata Party National President JP Nadda on Wednesday announced that his party will contest the upcoming Uttar Pradesh polls jointly with Apna Dal and Nishad Party. The polls will be contested on 403 seats, he said. However, seat-sharing formula is yet to be finalised. The announcement was made after a BJP CEC meeting that was held in Delhi with Union Ministers Amit Shah, Anurag Thakur, UP CM Yogi Adityanth, BJP national chief JP Nadda, Apna Dal (S) leader Anupriya Patel and Nishad Party chief Sanjay Nishad attending it.
“Today a big change is being seen in UP under the leadership of Modi ji and due to the tireless efforts of Yogi ji. Be it education, connectivity, investment, everywhere work has been done on a large scale”, Nadda said during the address.
Welcoming the alliance of all three parties, Patel said, “Through the alliance of BJP, Nishad Party and Apna Dal, we will contest and win the UP assembly polls, and will steer the state in the direction of development”.
When asked about claims of Apna Dal demanding 36 seats, Patel said, “We will arrive at the final figure (for seat-sharing among Apna Dal, BJP & Nishad Party) very soon…I have not quoted any such number. Talks are on over final figure for Uttar Pradesh Assembly Polls”.
Ahead of this announcement, the working president of Apna Dal (Sonelal) Ashish Patel on Tuesday had said that their focus is to get “winnable seats” during seat-sharing talks with BJP. “Our complete focus is to get seats that are winnable. This is our priority,” Patel told news agency ANI.
“Some of these seats include Pratapgarh Sadar, Vishvnathganj, Shohratgarh, Sevapuri, Chhanbey, Soraon, Jahanabad,” he said.
