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BSP snaps ties with SAD ahead of Lok Sabha polls
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Tuesday snapped around three-year-old alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and announced to go solo in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls
Chandigarh: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Tuesday snapped around three-year-old alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and announced to go solo in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The BSP has taken the decision after a marathon meeting of state executive committee presided over by BSP national general secretary and party’s in-charge of Punjab and Haryana Randhir Singh Benipal in Chandigarh.
The move comes amid speculation of the SAD cosying up to its old alliance partner, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“The SAD was trying to forge an alliance with the BJP and the BSP in no way can be part of this coalition. The BJP is anti-poor and anti-Dalit. The SAD was constantly ignoring the BJP, said Benipal.
The SAD had stitched ties with the BSP in June 2021 after ending a 24-year-old alliance with BJP in 2020 over now-repealed controversial farm laws, which triggered massive protest among Punjab’s peasantry that for long has been associated with the SAD.
The SAD-BSP alliance contested the 2022 assembly elections in Punjab but without much success as the SAD won only three seats in the 117-member House while the BSP drew a blank.
In BSP circles, there were talks of snapping ties with the SAD last month too, but after SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal met BSP supremo Mayawati, the two parties clarified that the alliance would continue and they will contest the Lok Sabha elections in coalition.
BSP’s state president Jasbir Singh Garhi said Punjab farmers are on a warpath for their demands and BJP-led governments at the Centre and Haryana are targeting them with rubber bullets and teargas shells and not allowing them to march to the national capital.
“In such scenario, when the SAD is trying to enter into an alliance with the BJP, we would like to snap ties with the SAD,” said Garhi.
The BSP’s move is considered as a jolt to the SAD which until the past week was seeking for an alliance with the BJP but things are yet to materialise due to farmers’ protest, which began on Tuesday.
According to people familiar with the matter, the SAD and BSP were unable to reach a consensus on seat-sharing arrangement. While the SAD wanted to contest on nine or 10 seats of the total 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, the BJP was seeking a bigger piece of the pie.
Senior SAD leader Prem Singh Chandumajra said he was not aware of the BSP’s move. “The alliance is intact,” he added.
