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Shiromani Akali Dal kickstarts process to pick candidates for Lok Sabha polls
The BJP announced earlier this week that it will contest all 13 LS seats in Punjab on its own, ending all speculation about the SAD’s return to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and setting the stage for a four-cornered fight in Punjab.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday will start the process to finalise the manifesto and pick candidates for the upcoming parliament polls.
Voting in Punjab is scheduled in the last phase on June 1. Sukhbir would meet the district-level leaders of the party to take feedback.
The meetings are planned over two days starting from April 1. This will be for the first time that Sukhbir come face-to-face with the party cadres from the districts after the much-anticipated tie-up with its old ally the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) couldn’t materialize.
For the past three months, speculations were rife of possible re-alliance between the two allies. But the BJP announced earlier this week that it will contest all 13 LS seats in Punjab on its own, ending all speculation about the SAD’s return to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and setting the stage for a four-cornered fight in Punjab. This will be the first time since 1996 that the BJP and the SAD, one of the oldest constituents of the NDA, which parted ways over the 2020-21 farm law protests, will be fighting the Lok Sabha polls alone in the state.
“Now, when things are clear, the party president wants to touch a chord with the cadres. The party has finalised candidates for half of the 13 parliament seats and on remaining will be discussed. The meetings would also thrash out who are the most suitable candidates to be fielded,” said a party leader on anonymity.
The leader said that the party chief would hold constituency-wise discussions with MLAs, district presidents, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) members, halqa in-charges and key leaders of the assembly constituencies. There are 13 parliament constituencies in Punjab and one in Chandigarh and each day the party president would meet the representatives of five parliament segments of the state, including Chandigarh.
Party spokesperson Daljit Singh Cheema said the discussion would involve the party’s strategy for the polls.
“The party is likely to announce the manifesto committee tomorrow. President would also consult the cadres about the agenda and issues to be raised during the poll campaign,” Cheema added.
