Gearing up for the high-octane Delhi assembly elections, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Monday constituted a three-member committee to take care of various aspects for the February 8 polls.
The announcement to set up the panel came hours after the Election Commission of India announced the poll dates.
SAD president Sukhbir Badal formed the three members high level committee, comprising of MPs Balwinder Singh Bhundur, Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra and Naresh Gujral, to hold talks with its alliance partner BJP for seat sharing and campaign coordination for the forthcoming assembly elections in Delhi.
“The committee would hold discussions with the Delhi BJP unit as well as the party’s central leadership as per need to ensure smooth coordination between the alliance partners during the ensuing Delhi elections,” said Sukhbir.
Notably, SAD has been contesting on four seats for 70-member Delhi assembly in alliance with the saffron party, which fields its candidates on remaining 66 seats.
During the previous elections in February 2015, the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) broom swept the Delhi assembly elections dashing to the ground Akali Dal’s hopes of emerging as a national political party with the electorate giving their verdict against four of its candidates it fielded.
Out of SAD’s four candidates, only one of them was contesting on party’s symbol — the weighing scale.
But, the party witnessed an increase in the vote share of its candidates on the four seats it contested, as compared to the previous elections.
The party fields its candidates on Rajouri Garden constituency, Kalkaji, Shahdara, and Harinagar — the prominent Sikh dominated areas of the national capital.
During 2013 polls, SAD managed to grab three seats out of four it contested. It had won Rajaouri Garden on its own symbol, and Kalkaji and Shahdara on BJP’s symbol.
During 2008 elections, SAD also failed to win even a single seat out of the four it contested in alliance with the BJP.
Even as the two parties are yet to decide on seat sharing, sources informed The Pioneer that SAD is planning its strategy according to the four seats on which it contested during previous polls as it is hopeful to get the same set of seats.
At the same time, the party has almost made up its mind to field the same candidates, at least on two seats.