The Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) have joined hands to form a new alliance for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh. Before meeting in UP, Apna Dal(K) leader Pallavi Patel had met AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi in Hyderabad.
The alliance was officially announced at a joint press conference of Pallavi Patel and Asaduddin Owaisi in Lucknow on Sunday. The alliance devised a new slogan: PDM (Pichhda, Dalit, and Musalman), which has been tweaked from SP’s PDA (Pichhda Dalit Alpsankhyak).
Asaduddin Owaisi in Uttar Pradesh
On March 23, the Apna Dal (K) had withdrawn its candidates from the three Lok Sabha seats -- Phulpur, Mirzapur and Kaushambi -- in Uttar Pradesh. In a statement, the Krishna Patel-led party stated that it had cancelled the list of candidates it had declared for the Lok Sabha elections until further notice.
Earlier, the party had said that it wanted to contest three seats as part of the INDIA bloc in Uttar Pradesh. The Apna Dal (K) had contested the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls in alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP), with Patel contesting on an SP ticket.
Meanwhile, former UP Minister Swami Prasad Maurya, who recently parted ways with the Samajwadi Party, on Sunday said he will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Kushinagar as a candidate of his Rashtriya Shoshit Samaj Party (RSSP).