The Apna Dal’s newest splinter group, theAll India Apna Dal (AIAD), has decided to field candidates in the Lok Sabha election in UP and other states, a party leader said.

This decision was taken at a meeting of the new party here Tuesday. The party’s national president Seth Jagdish Singh chaired the meeting.

The AIAD’s national general secretary Man Singh Patel said the party will hold talks with like-minded political parties for an alliance in the Lok Sabha election. If an alliance fails to materialise, the party will field candidates on 33 Lok Sabha seats in UP, he said.

The AIAD will also field candidates on three Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, three in Chhattisgarh, six in Bihar, two in Jharkhand, two in Maharashtra, two in Rajasthan, four each in Haryana and Punjab, one each in Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh, he said.

Patel said the party appointed Pratapgarh MP Harivansh Singh and senior leader Omkar Patel as national general secretaries and Hafiz Mohammad Mobin and Rishi Narain Patel as secretaries.

The AIAD’s national executive meeting will be held on February 27 to finalise the dates for rallies across the state.

There are two other factions of the Apna Dal. One of them, known as Apna Dal (Sonelal), is led by union minister Anupriya Patel. Her mother Krishna Patel leads the second faction known as Apna Dal. The undivided Apna Dal was founded by Sonelal Patel, a former Bahujan Samaj Party leader, in 1995.

First Published: Feb 27, 2019 08:31 IST