Cong eyes BJP allies Apna Dal, Rajbhar

Apparently feeling that their support could hugely boost its electoral prospects in the eastern Uttar Pradesh region, the Congress is eyeing Apna Dal (AD) and the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP), the disgruntled alliance partners of the BJP in the state.

According to sources in the state Congress, AD leader and Union minister Anupriya Patel had a meeting with Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in Delhi on Thursday.

"We are ready for an alliance with the AD...it (AD) will get a respectable number of seats if it allies with us...it will benefit both parties," a senior UP Congress leader here said on Friday.

The Congress leader's remarks came barely hours after Anupriya indicated that her party was "free" to decide about its future course of action after BJP's failure to address its concerns.

"It seems the BJP is not interested in addressing the issues raised by us...we will soon decide about our future course of action," she said in Bareilly on Friday.

Similarly, SBSP president and UP minister Om Prakash Rajbhar continued to attack the BJP despite meeting saffron party president Amit Shah in the national capital.

The AD commands considerable influence over the 'Kurmi' voters, who form around 4% of the total electorate and could prove to be decisive on around 10 seats, including Varanasi, the Lok Sabha seat of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The SBSP also wields influence over 'Rajbhar' (an OBC) voters, who are concentrated in around half-a-dozen districts in the eastern region.

It would be a huge boost for the Congress if the grand old party is able to form an electoral alliance with the regional and caste-based outfits.