BJP will not forge alliance with SAD at any cost, says BJP’s Punjab chief

Chandigarh, Apr 29 (PTI) There is no possibility of the BJP entering into an alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal again and it will contest all elections in Punjab on its own, the party’s state unit chief Ashwani Sharma said on Saturday.

He added that the homage paid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP leadership to Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patriarch Parkash Singh Badal, who died on Tuesday, should not be linked to politics.

Modi visited the SAD office in Chandigarh to express grief with the Badal family following the death of the five-time former Punjab chief minister.

BJP chief JP Nadda, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, senior leader Tarun Chugh and other party functionalities visited Badal’s village in Muktsar to pay homage to him on Thursday.

Sharma, in a statement on Saturday, said, “The BJP will contest all the elections on its own and win with a thumping majority. And (it) will not forge an alliance with the SAD at any cost.”

Sharma said an article written by Modi about Badal or the prime minister and the BJP leadership visiting Punjab to pay tribute to the former chief minister should not be linked to politics.

“It was nothing but a tribute to former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal,” said Sharma in the statement.

Modi, in an article that appeared in a section of the media, paid glowing tribute to Badal.

He added that he lost a father figure, someone who guided him for decades, with Badal’s demise.

The SAD broke off ties with the BJP over the now-repealed farm laws in 2020. It had been part of the National Democratic Alliance since 1997, having stitched up a pre-poll alliance with the BJP ahead of the assembly elections in Punjab that year.

Sharma on Saturday said the BJP is getting huge support from the villages, because of which they are both happy and surprised.

The BJP will fight the upcoming polls, including the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, alone, he asserted.

Punjabis have now understood that the BJP is the only party that can make Punjab prosperous by maintaining peace and brotherhood, he said.

The BJP does what it says, Sharma added.

Slamming the AAP government in Punjab, Sharma said every section of society is fed up with the Bhagwant Mann-led dispensation and will vote for the BJP to teach it a lesson.