Why so desperate for BJP alliance, Warring asks Sukhbir

Warring’s remark came a day after the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) announced its support for the Women’s Reservation Bill and the Delimitation Bill

Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring on Sunday asked why Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal was so “desperate” for an electoral alliance with the BJP that he had to make a “U-turn” on a sensitive matter like delimitation of the assembly and parliamentary constituencies.

Issuing a statement, Warring recalled and reminded Sukhbir that in April, SAD had strongly opposed the Delimitation Bill and described it as “against the interests of Punjab”. (HT)

The remark came a day after the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) announced its support for the Women’s Reservation Bill and the Delimitation Bill, calling for their immediate implementation and backing the Centre’s proposal for a uniform 50% increase in the number of seats for all states.

The party announced its revised stand after Sukhbir’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on Friday, which left political circles abuzz with talk of a SAD-BJP reunion.

Issuing a statement, Warring recalled and reminded Sukhbir that in April, SAD had strongly opposed the Delimitation Bill and described it as “against the interests of Punjab”.

“So, what changed within these three months that you started seeing merit in the same bill that you otherwise found against Punjab’s interests?” he asked, while remarking, “Sukhbir has turned more loyal than the king within no time”.

The Punjab Congress president alleged that the reasons were obvious that Sukhbir, who was desperate for his political survival, was trying to woo the BJP so that it agreed for an electoral alliance ahead of the 2027 assembly elections in the state.

He said when the Akalis failed to reach an alliance with the BJP ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections, Sukhbir had claimed that he did not want to compromise on the interests of Punjab. “Now that you are desperate for your own survival, you have simply forgotten the interests of Punjab for which you claimed to had taken a stand in 2024,” Warring said, addressing Sukhbir, and told him that his “political opportunism was exposed once again”.

The Ludhiana MP claimed that even if the Akalis and the BJP came together for the elections, they stood absolutely no chance of victory.

“People of Punjab have neither forgotten the sacrilege nor the atrocities on farmers that the two parties are respectively guilty of,” he claimed, adding that their coming together will hardly make any difference to their electoral fortunes, but “will instead expose their opportunism”.