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.
The Ludhiana-based outfit’s president, Harmeet Singh Qadian, announced the decision in the presence of the SAD chief. “Main pandit tan hai nahin (I am not an astrologer). 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.
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.
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said the support was crucial, particularly as the state’s farming community had turned against the party after the now-repealed three farm laws were introduced. 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). Congress has no future in the state, and the AAP will be decimated in the upcoming state elections. 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. 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 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.
“I had said before also that the two political parties, the Congress and AAP, are enemies of Punjab. Except them, we are open to those parties which are in the interest of Punjab and which are with our philosophy,” he said. 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. “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.
Earlier in August, Sukhbir had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his office in the Parliament House.
