Apna Dal (K) quits INDIA bloc, joins AIMIM front

Lucknow, March 31

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Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) on Sunday formally broke away from the INDIA bloc and tied up with Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM to launch a joint front ahead of Lok Sabha poll.

The two opposition parties floated the PDM Nyay Morcha, calling it a front to bring justice to backward classes, Dalits and Muslims. This is similar to PDA — an acronym for Pichda, Dalit and Alpasankhyak (minorities) — coined by the former Apna Dal (K) ally Samajwadi Party.

Apna Dal (K) leader Pallavi Patel made it clear that the party was no longer an ally of the SP which was a member of the INDIA bloc.

“We are not a part of the INDIA bloc now,” Apna Dal (K) chief Krishna Patel said.

She also said her party’s alliance with the SP did not exist anymore and blamed SP chief Akhilesh Yadav for the breakup.

Pallavi said it was Yadav who said the alliance with the Apna Dal was for the 2022 Assembly elections only, and not for the Lok Sabha poll. “We were invited by the Congress to be a part of the INDI alliance and they should have made it clear whether we are a part of the INDIA bloc or not? But the Congress did not take much interest,” Pallavi said.