E-Paper
‘Not an astrologer, wait for few days’: Sukhbir on possible BJP-SAD tie-up
He reiterated that the Akali Dal was open to an alliance with any party that accepted its ideology except the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
Prefer HTon Google
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday gave a guarded response to speculation over a possible reunion with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the Punjab assembly polls, indicating that the situation would become clear in a few days.
“Main pandit tan hai nahin (I am not an astrologer). You will come to know in a few days what will happen,” Sukhbir said on the sidelines of an event where the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Qadian) extended unconditional support to the Akali Dal.
He reiterated that the Akali Dal was open to an alliance with any party that accepted its ideology except the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
“I had said before also that the two political parties, the Congress and AAP, are enemies of Punjab. Congress has no future in the state, and the AAP will be decimated in the upcoming state elections. Except them, we are open to those parties which are in the interest of Punjab and which are with our philosophy,” he said.
Leaders of both the SAD and the BJP’s Punjab unit have been pushing for a renewed alliance. On October 21, home minister Amit Shah had said that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would form a government in Punjab after the 2027 state assembly polls fueling possibility of a tie-up. Earlier in August, Sukhbir had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his office in the Parliament House. In recent months, many Punjab BJP leaders have maintained that they are preparing to contest all 117 assembly seats for the upcoming assembly elections.
The SAD had snapped its 24-year alliance with the BJP in September 2020 over the now-scrapped three farm laws.
The SAD and BJP forged an alliance in 1996 and formed coalition governments in Punjab in 1997, 2007 and 2012. Since parting ways, however, both parties have performed poorly in elections. In the 2022 assembly polls, their first electoral contest apart in more than two decades, the SAD won only three of the 117 seats — its worst-ever performance — while the BJP managed just two. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the SAD won only one of Punjab’s 13 seats, while the BJP failed to open its account. As per the previous pact in the assembly polls, the BJP used to contest 23 seats and the SAD 94 assembly seats. In parliamentary polls, the SAD used to fight on 10 seats and the BJP on the remaining three.
BKU (Qadian) extends support to Akali Dal
Bharatiya Kisan Union (Qadian), a constituent of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), on Monday announced unconditional support for the SAD in the upcoming assembly polls.
The Ludhiana-based outfit’s president, Harmeet Singh Qadian, announced the decision in the presence of the SAD chief. The union claims to have a support base in the state’s Malwa belt. BKU (Qadian) is one of the 23 farmers’ organisations in the SKM.
Qadian said his outfit had approached all political parties over the past three months and found that only the SAD had a pro-farmer policy agenda.
“The AAP has failed to launch a farm policy despite announcing one ahead of the 2022 state polls, while the state farmers’ commission has also prepared a draft. The AAP government has backtracked on the promise made to the SKM on September 7, as it failed to implement the pro-farmer resolutions agreed upon with the morcha,” he said.
Sukhbir thanked Qadian for extending support to the party and appealed to all other farmer and labourers organisations to back SAD.
SAD vice-president Daljit Singh Cheema said the support was crucial, particularly as the state’s farming community had turned against the party after the now-repealed three farm laws were introduced. “We appeal to all other farm bodies to support the SAD as we are a party which has worked for the farmers since it came into existence and will continue to support the peasantry,” he said.
