Dy CM Post In UP? “Will Sit & Discuss,” Says Apna Dal (S) Chief Anupriya Patel

| Updated: 12 March, 2022 2:58 pm IST

Union Minister Anupriya Patel speaking to The New Indian in Lucknow.

LUCKNOW: Apna Dal (Sonelal) supremo Anupriya Patel, whose party won 12 out of 17 assembly seats it contested and whose sister defeated incumbent Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, on Saturday said that leaders of her party and the BJP will “sit and discuss” if she wants the deputy CM’s post for one of her candidates.

Responding to a question on whether her party wants the deputy chief minister’s post, she said, “We will sit and discuss, that is what I have to say as of now.”

Speaking to The New Indian at the party office here, Patel, who is also a Union minister, said both the parties will also discuss the number of ministerial berths to her party MLAs. “We (Apna Dal and BJP) will sit and discuss our participation in the government,” she said.

Apna Dal (Sonelal) fought the recently-concluded assembly elections in alliance with the BJP and emerged as the third largest party in the state after the BJP and the Samajwadi Party.

Answering a question on her party’s priorities in the next government, she further said: “We have just got the election result declared and the government formation is yet to take place. Let the government formation takes place, then we will work on our priorities.”

Anupriya Patel is chief of the Sonelal faction of Apna Dal, while her mother Krishna Patel heads the ‘Kamerawadi’ group of the Apna Dal. While Anupriya’s party aligned with the BJP in this election, her mother chose Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party as an ally. Pallavi Patel, Anupriya’s sister and a candidate of Apna Dal (Kamerwadi), defeated Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya in Sirathu assembly constituency.

Krishna Patel unsuccessfully contested this election from Pratapgarh seat where the Union minister’s party had not fielded its candidate.

“Victory and defeat is always a part of the game. Whoever is in the fray should he prepared to face any of the two. I think everybody should take this in good spirit and my good wishes to every candidate who has won from whichever party they contested,” the minister said.

The Apna Dal (Sonewal) has witnessed a meticulous rise in last 10 years. In 2017 assembly elections, the party won 9 out of 11 seats it contested.

Election results of Uttar Pradesh were declared on March 10 where the ruling BJP won 255 seats in the 403-member assembly.