New Delhi: A decade after a split in the late Sonelal Patel’s Apna Dal party, a family feud over his political legacy continues to rage on. On one side is Union minister Anupriya Patel, who leads the Apna Dal (S) party. And on the other are her elder sister, Pallavi Patel, and their mother, Krishna Patel, who run the Apna Dal (K) faction.
Tensions escalated this week when Pallavi accused Anupriya’s husband Ashish Patel, the technical education minister in the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government, of corruption in promotions.
Pallavi alleged that ineligible candidates had been promoted to the position of head of department in government and government-aided polytechnics, violating new guidelines that have no provision for promotions.
She also staged a protest in the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly complex on Monday and Tuesday against the speaker’s decision not to give her a chance to raise the issue in assembly proceedings.
“Our battle is on the basis of facts. We have documents against the technical education minister; so we are raising the issue. Earlier whatever allegations my mother put were also on the basis of fact. We do not have anything against them personally, but politically we are fighting our battle,” Pallavi Patel told ThePrint.
Reacting to the allegations, Ashish Patel told ThePrint there was a political conspiracy to tarnish his image and demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). “The phone details of those who are making allegations should be checked as they are being guided by someone. There is a plot to end my career,” he said.
The minister refused to reveal the identity of the “someone”, but his close associates told ThePrint he was referring to a top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) functionary in the state.
Shifting political equations
The latest tussle between the two factions comes amid shifting political equations. The Apna Dal (K) is part of the INDIA bloc while the Apna Dal (S) is part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Krishna is currently a national president of the Apna Dal (K), while her daughter Anupriya is leading the Apna Dal (S).
But of late, the Apna Dal (K)’s Pallavi has distanced herself from ally Samajwadi Party and has been cosying up to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
In February, just before the Lok Sabha polls, Pallavi Patel revolted against the Samajwadi Party for not giving importance to the PDA, or Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak, community in the Rajya Sabha candidates’ selection. Akhilesh Yadav then put her out of the alliance and didn’t give her a single seat during the Lok Sabha polls.
She met Adityanath twice after the Lok Sabha election and has called him an honest chief minister in some of her interviews.
Sources in Apna Dal (K) said that she is open to “other options” beyond the INDIA bloc but her entry into the NDA is not easy as Anupriya’s Apna Dal (S) is already present and enjoys a good rapport with Union home minister Amit Shah. They said Yogi is said to be well-disposed towards Pallavi though.
Meanwhile, Anupriya has been targeting the Adityanath-led government of late. Just after the Lok Sabha poll results, she wrote a letter to Adityanath alleging that reserved seats meant for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) had been “unreserved” during the government recruitment process. But, she has been silent since the husband came under the scanner.
The Apna Dal (S) has 12 seats in the assembly, while Apna Dal (K) leader Pallavi is an MLA on the Samajwadi Party’s symbol.
A tussle for power & legacy
Apna Dal founder Sonelal Patel was among the tallest Kurmi leaders in Uttar Pradesh. The Kurmi community is considered the second-most influential Other Backward Class (OBC) group after the Yadavs in Uttar Pradesh.
He was also a close aide of Kanshi Ram and one of the founding members of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). After disassociating himself from the BSP, he formed the Apna Dal (K) in 1995. He unsuccessfully contested the Phulpur Lok Sabha elections in 2009.
After his death that year, Anupriya won the assembly election from Varanasi’s Rohania constituency in 2012. She went on to win the Lok Sabha polls from Mirzapur in alliance with the BJP in 2014.
In the same year, Krishna lost bypolls from Rohania, which was vacated by Anupriya. According to a source from the Apna Dal (S), the rift between the mother and daughter began at that point.
Later, Anupriya formed her own party, the Apna Dal (S), where S stands for Sonelal. In 2022, Krishna Patel’s faction, the Apna Dal (K), formed an alliance with the Samajwadi Party and Pallavi Patel went on to secure a significant win when she defeated Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Maurya in the assembly election.
An Apna Dal (K) functionary said the 2022 assembly victory added a new twist to the power dynamics in the Patel family. Earlier, Anupriya’s faction was dominant because she was a Union minister and her husband a cabinet minister in the state.
But Pallavi and the Krishna Patel faction got a massive boost after defeating Keshav Maurya, putting them in a position to challenge Anupriya’s party.
Earlier on various occasions, Apna Dal (K) president Krishna Patel has accused her son-in-law Ashish Patel of creating disputes within the family and disturbing the programmes of the Apna Dal (K).
In July 2022, she alleged that Ashish used his political powers to cancel permission for an event planned by the Apna Dal (K) on the occasion of Sonelal Patel’s birth anniversary.
Later, Krishna Patel raised a demand for a CBI inquiry into the death of Apna Dal founder Sonelal Patel. He died in a road accident in 2009.
“The feud is not only due to a legacy battle but also because of a property dispute,” a close aide of the Patel family told ThePrint. “Krishna Patel is on Pallavi’s side and totally ignores Anupriya and Ashish. Therefore, the property which includes a trust and a chain of schools in Kanpur in the name of Sonelal Patel, is still managed by the Krishna Patel faction.”
Ashish Patel denies any interest in the property. He told ThePrint he would resign immediately if Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
