AAP ties up with Apna Dal

Lucknow, Jan 12 (IANS) On a day the SP and BSP sealed an alliance for the Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also concluded a deal with the Apna Dal (Krishna Patel) on Saturday.

Announcing the alliance, AAP's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said the alliance has been agreed upon in principle and that seat-sharing talks were under way. Singh, who is in Ayodhya as part of a yatra, said the two parties will contest all Lok Sabha seats in the state.

Vaibhav Maheshwari, AAP spokesman in Uttar Pradesh, told that talks had been going on for a long time with Apna Dal (Krishna Patel) and that the ideology of zero corruption and secularism had brought the two parties together.

"We both are against corruption and against communal forces," he added.

Apna Dal (Krishna Patel) is the faction of the party led by its founder Sone Lal Patel's widow. The other is Apna Dal (S) led by Anupriya Patel, who is a Minister of State in the Modi government.

Sone Lal Patel was a regional leader of the Patels who died in a car crash in 2009. The party was later split between his widow and elder daughter.

Apna Dal (S) later aligned with the BJP for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls winning two seats in UP, Mirzapur and Pratapgarh. It has nine legislators in the 403-member UP Assembly.

While Apna Dal (S) has been sparring with the BJP of late, accusing the latter of ignoring its party and cadre, its leaders have clarified that its alliance with the BJP was intact and would continue.