Anupriya Patel says Apna Dal to leave BJP, 'choose own path'; party 'still part of NDA' claims president Ashish Patel

New Delhi: Apna Dal (Sonelal) convener and minister of state in Modi cabinet Anupriya Patel on Thursday said that her party will now be free to choose its own path as the BJP leadership was not displaying any interest in resolving her party’s issues. Speaking to media persons, Patel said, “We were facing some problems with the BJP and we had shared it with their party’s top leaders. We had given them time till 20 February to resolve the issues but none of the problems were solved. This shows that BJP has no concern for its allies and is not interested in them and hence Apna Dal (S) is now free to choose its own path.” Apna Dal national president Ashish Patel, however, said the party is very much part of NDA as of now and the future course will be decided by the end of February after a meeting of party office bearers. [caption id=“attachment_5800441” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Anupriya Patel. News18[/caption] “We are part of NDA. We had some issues with Uttar Pradesh BJP, which we had raised in front of the central leadership. However, no action has been taken in that regard. Today we have decided that a meeting of core committee of our party will be convened on February, 28 and the future course will be decided,” Patel told ANI. He also added that Apna Dal does not have any conflict with BJP on the seat-sharing issue. “We honestly want Prime Minister Narendra Modi to get re-elected. But for that the UP BJP has to change its attitude. If our demands are met, we will strongly support the NDA in 2019 elections,” he said. On the issues between Apna Dal and Uttar Pradesh government, he said, “We had demanded that our party workers be given positions in different corporations of the state. They have made around 300 such appointments but none of our workers were given the opportunity.” He also said that Apna Dal is not in talks with any other party for an alliance in upcoming Lok Sabha elections. In December last year, Anupriya Patel who is the Minister of State for health and family welfare had said that the BJP was not giving due respect to its smaller allies. “BJP should learn from its recent losses. The SP-BSP alliance is a challenge for us. My party president has already expressed the party’s view and I stand by it,” Patel had said last year on 31 December. Apna Dal had contested 2014 Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the BJP winning two seats – Mirzapur and Pratapgarh.