“We will contest all 117 seats” is the most recent public line the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been taking in Punjab, signalling that talks of a patch-up with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) have broken down. But about six months remain before the state votes, and discussions continue on three key issues, sources have told NDTV.
These issues are: who will contest for how many seats, which ones, and who’ll be projected for the posts of chief minister and deputy chief minister. At the heart of it is an assertive BJP, which has so far played a much junior role to the Badals’ Akali Dal in the Sikh-majority state. Then there is the question of going into the election with a declared chief ministerial candidate. The BJP is not enthusiastic about that, it is learnt. The Akali Dal, however, wants Sukhbir Singh Badal to be the alliance’s CM face. Sukhbir served as deputy CM when his father, the late Parkash Singh Badal, was CM.
One round of talks on seat-sharing has already been held, sources told NDTV as of Thursday, August 27.
Here, some BJP leaders feel his image could come in the way, sources said.
The BJP got two seats. The Congress so far remains faction-ridden in the state. Neither seems in a hurry to announce the alliance. The BJP is also planning a yatra on the issue of drug abuse across the state, highlighting recent achievements of the central government.
After their breakup over the SAD’s opposition to the later-repealed farm laws of 2020-21, the BJP allied with former Congress CM Capt Amarinder Singh’s Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa’s faction of the SAD, with 70-odd candidates taking the BJP’s symbol. The BJP’s assessment is that, had the two parties been together, the alliance would have led in 57 assembly segments, which is just two short of the majority mark in the House of 117, sources told NDTV, noting that a revived alliance could give a tough fight to the AAP by building on the anti-incumbency sentiment as well. During BJP organisational general secretary BL Santhosh’s recent visit to Punjab, there was emphasis on strengthening the BJP’s booth-level structure in all 117 segments.
The ruling AAP got just three, the main Opposition Congress won seven, with two going to Independents. The SAD’s Harsimrat Kaur Badal, whose husband Sukhbir Singh Badal leads a beleaguered SAD, retained the Bathinda Lok Sabha seat. It’s on the basis of its solo performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections that the BJP is claiming more assembly seats this time. In that contest, the BJP received over 18.5 per cent of the votes in Punjab. It got no Lok Sabha seat of the state’s 13.
