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Delhi polls: SAD leaders to meet Shah to strike seat-sharing deal
Three-member Akali panel to call on BJP chief tomorrow; likely get nod to contest four seats
Top Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leaders will meet Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Wednesday to discuss seat-sharing arrangement for the forthcoming Delhi polls scheduled for February 8.
The SAD is an alliance partner of the BJP in Punjab and is part of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre. But the allies contested the recent Haryana assembly polls separately after the saffron party denied to part with an increased number of seats for the SAD.
The two parties contested the 2015 Delhi assembly elections together with SAD candidates being fielded from four seats. Two of its candidates had contesting on the BJP’s symbol.
This time, the SAD has claimed its strength on nine seats in the national capital and has constituted a three-member committee comprising Rajya Sabha MPs Naresh Gujaral and Balwinder Singh Bhunder and former Lok Sabha MP Prem Singh Chandumajra to strike a seat-searing deal with the BJP.
The seats on which the SAD is likely to stake claim are Tilak Nagar, Hari Nagar, Rajouri Garden, Moti Nagar, Kalkaji, Shahdara, Rohtas Nagar, Sadar Bazaar and Rajinder Nagar having 15 to 35% Sikh voters.
In past two elections – SAD has contested on four seats in the 70-member Delhi assembly. “In 2015, SAD contested on four seats – Hari Nagar, Shahdara, Rajouri Garden and Kalkaji — which have formidable Sikh population,” Gujaral said.
“In the last elections, the SAD wanted to contest Tilak Nagar in place of Hari Nagar,” said Gujaral, confirming the scheduled meeting with Amit Shah on Wednesday. SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal will also attend the meeting.
“We have given option of some seats to the BJP chief and it is up to him to choose the four to be contested by the SAD,” said Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) president Manjinder Singh Sirsa, who is also the general secretary of Delhi unit of SAD, and Rajouri Garden MLA.
In 2013, the SAD contested four seats and won three – Rajouri Garden, Shahdara and Kalkaji. But it lost on all in 2015. In 2017, Sirsa won the Rajouri Garden bypoll. The seat fell vacant after Aam Aadmi Party’s Jarnail Singh resigned to unsuccessfully contest assembly polls against former Punjab chief minister and SAD patriarch Parkash Singh Badal from Lambi.
“The AAP touched the pinnacle in the 2015 polls when it won 67 out of 70 seats in state assembly. Now, it is on a downslide having lost all seven Lok Sabha seats,” said SAD Delhi president Harmeet Singh Kalka.
