A marriage of convenience between the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) versus Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in doldrums with the saffron brigade parting ways with its coalition partner for the civic body polls in Tarn Taran. The BJP on Friday made it clear that the alliance with the SAD was no more applicable to Tarn Taran and they would fight against the SAD candidates for the 23-member Nagar Council.
The decision came less than 24-hour after the BJP issued ultimatum to the SAD-led State Government to take strict action against the “attackers” and the erring Punjab police personnel. “There are no such circumstances that the two parties would contest the elections together in Tarn Taran. The situation is so tense there that we have decided to contest the elections there against each other. In all 23 wards, the party candidates would be fighting polls against SAD candidates,” the State BJP president Kamal Sharma told The Pioneer.
The things went wrong for the allies in Tarn Taran on Tuesday when some Akali men had allegedly attacked and fired gunshots at the BJP leader and state local Bodies Minister Anil Joshi’s brother Rakesh Raja Joshi. Sharma said that the seat distribution has been done on all seats between the SAD and BJP, and the alliance would together contest polls everywhere, except Tarn Taran. He hoped that differences in Tarn Taran would not affect the coalition’s relation in other parts as “every municipal is a separate entity”.
Making things worse for the coalition, at several places, they have failed to settle on the seat sharing even as Friday was the last day to file the nominations. “There are several seats on which candidates from both parties have filed their nominations, and there are little differences. We still have couple of day’s time to sort the issue till withdrawal of nominations,” he said. The BJP chief said he had talked to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal regarding this and the SAD-BJP coordination committee, comprising State Education Minister Daljeet Singh Cheema and former Forest Minister Tikshan Sud, would resolve the issue.
Meanwhile, Sharma also led the party’s delegation to Tarn Taran, comprising Union Minister Vijay Sampla and former state party chief Bl Rinwa, to Tarn Taran to meet the party workers and take stock of the situation. The delegation held a detailed meeting with the Special Investigation Team (SIT) officials comprising IGP (Border Zone) Ishwar Chander, Amritsar Police Commissioner Jatinder Singh Aulakh and Amritsar (Rural) SSP Jasdeep Singh.
“The SIT is taking action. As per our demand, they have registered attempt to murder case against the accused, and two of them have been nabbed. Police is conducting raids to nab other accused,” said Sharma. BJP’s core committee, in its Thursday meeting, had sought dismissal of city SHO, and transfer of Tarn Taran SSP. “SHO has been suspended, and any further action against cops would be taken after SIT files their report,” said Sharma.