UP polls: Apna Dal's Anupriya Patel upset with ally BJP over candidate list

New Delhi: The recently released list of candidates by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls has become the bone of contention.

Sources said Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel, who is the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Cabinet, has expressed her disappointment over the BJP's list.

Patel is said to be upset over the fact that the BJP has fielded its candidates even in those assembly constituencies where the Apna Dal is better placed. She is expected to meet the BJP central leadership to lodge her protest.

Patel had won the 2012 assembly polls from the Rohaniya constituency in Varanasi. The second seat of contention is that of Mirzapur for which the BJP has fielded Anuraj Singh, son of former state BJP president Om Prakash Singh. The third constituency is Banda's Manikpur from which BJP's R K Patel is slated to contest the polls.

Also, no leader from 'Apna Dal' was included in the list of star campaigners too. The three stalwarts from 'Apna Dal' -- Anupriya Patel from Mirzapur, Dr Manoj Kumar Pandey from Chandouli and Manoj Sinha from Ghazipur -- have not been included in the list of star campaigners.

With the stage set for the seven-phase assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP earlier on January 21 released the third list of its candidates and 40 star campaigners. Since then, the party has been facing criticism of nepotism and awarding turncoats.