Following jailed criminal Atiq Ahmad’s failure to send a condolence message after the death of Apna Dal chief Sonelal Patel, the party has decided to dissociate from him.

“We had expected some communication from Atiq’s family with whom my father had good personal relations. But nobody from his family visited us,” said Anupriya Patel, daughter of Sonelal Patel, who has taken over as the party’s national general secretary.

“I don’t know about the political relation that Atiq had with my father but he shared a good personal rapport with Atiq. We will pursue our political activities without Atiq,” added Anupriya.

A graduate from Delhi’s Lady Shriram College, Anupriya, said: “We are open to alliances with any other like-minded party till the time there is no compromise with the ideology of the party — fighting for the socially backward and downtrodden.”

After obtaining a masters degree in psychology from Amity International, Anupriya is pursuing her MBA from Kanpur University. She said her father’s security was withdrawn by the present BSP government after it came to power in 2007.

According to Anupriya, her mother Krishna Patel, who is now the national president of the party, immediately needs security. Sonelal Patel had died in an accident last month, but the family believes the accident was the result of a conspiracy.