Apna Dal (Sonelal) to skip Uttar Pradesh civic body election as 'mark of protest' after BJP rejects poll demands

Lucknow: The Apna Dal (Sonelal) would not contest the upcoming urban local body elections in Uttar Pradesh as a “mark of protest” against the BJP “for not accommodating our demands”, a party spokesperson said on Saturday. However, the district unit heads of the party are allowed to field independent candidates, he said. “The party wanted to field its candidate for the post of mayor of the Allahabad Municipal Corporation along with 25 other posts of chairmen and corporators of various nagar palikas and nagar panchayats in the state. [caption id=“attachment_4193183” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. PTI[/caption] “The list was submitted to the BJP two days back, but it did not accommodate our demands,” Apna Dal(S) spokesperson Arvind Sharma told PTI. As a “mark of protest”, the party has decided not to contest the urban local bodies elections, he said. The party had demanded tickets for the polls from districts like Allahabad, Mirzapur, Sonbhadra, Mau, Pratapgarh, Kanpur, Jalaun and Rae Bareli. The polls will take place in three phases beginning from 22 November. Results will be announced on 1 December. In the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, the BJP along with its allies – Apna Dal(S) and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party – bagged an overwhelming 325 seats in the 403-member Legislative Assembly. The BJP had won 312 Assembly seats (out of 384 it contested), while Apna Dal(S) won nine seats out of 11 it had contested. The Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party grabbed four seats out of eight it contested.