Since 2014, Anupriya Patel and her party Apna Dal have been crucial allies of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). In the 2024 elections, Patel, 43, won her seat in Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, but with a slimmer margin, making it her party’s only victory this time.

In an interview with Hindustan Times, Patel said that her party had anticipated trouble for the ruling alliance in Uttar Pradesh by the third phase of the seven-phase election. She noted that the opposition had successfully spread the message that the government would change the Constitution if it achieved a third consecutive term with over 400 MPs in the Lok Sabha. Patel also pointed to former BJP MP Lallu Singh from Faizabad as a factor in the alliance’s disappointing performance in the state.

While the BJP lost several seats in UP, including Faizabad (Ayodhya), the NDA allies also failed to perform this time. Acknowledging that the results in Uttar Pradesh did not meet their expectations, despite initial satisfaction with the central government’s work and development initiatives, Patel explained that as the election progressed, her party began to sense trouble around the third phase, particularly due to a rumour spread by the opposition that the Modi government would amend the Constitution to remove reservations for SC, ST, and OBC communities.

This rumour created fear among voters and gained traction over time, especially as the election was stretched out. Patel noted that some alliance members inadvertently fuelled this rumour, giving the opposition a narrative to exploit.

“Some of our own people kind of said things like, ‘When we get 400, we’ll do this or we’ll do that.’ The opposition very smartly and cleverly got something to hold on to and they thought let’s build on this, because we have nothing concrete to say, but if we build on this rumour, we will be able to create fear in the minds of the oppressed sections, and they somehow succeeded,” Patel told HT.

She is hopeful that, eventually, people will recognise the opposition’s tactics and appreciate the government’s development efforts.

“In time people will realise how the opposition has played on their minds and their insecurities. And they will realise that somewhere they have not done justice to the amount of work that our government and our alliance did. Nevertheless, we will continue to take forward the growth story and the development story of not just Uttar Pradesh but the entire country under the able leadership of Narendra Modi,” she added.

On how could the BJP lose Ayodhya, Patel said that anti-incumbency against Faizabad candidate Lallu Singh played a huge role. Singh’s remarks about changing the Constitution also hurt their chances. She said that while some voters were committed to the Ram Mandir issue, many others prioritised development and social issues affecting OBC, SC, and ST communities. The diverse concerns of voters meant that relying solely on the Ram Mandir issue was insufficient for electoral success.

“Lallu Singh was one of our great warriors who actually was the one who started this whole ‘samvidhan badal jayega’ (constitution will change). That blunder he made. I don’t know what went wrong in his head and he said something like this. You should look at the configuration of your constituents. It has OBC voters. And if you are a BJP candidate and you’re saying things like that, it will definitely affect your elections,” she said in the interview.