Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is expected to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Manohar lal Khattar. However, there is bitterness in BJP as Shiromani Akali Dal campaigned and fought against its Punjab ally in the Haryana Assembly polls.
In alliance with the Indian National lok Dal (INlD), Akali Dal contested two seats in the Assembly polls and won one. After campaigning against BJP, the presence of Badal in the function is considered to be a political anti climax.
“Punjab Chief Minister has been invited for the swearing-in ceremony of new Haryana Chief Minister, scheduled to be held on October 26,” said an official spokesman. The invitation was received by the Punjab’s Resident Commissioner. The spokesman said Badal would also receive Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Chandigarh airport, who too is going to attend the function.
Badal, who is patron of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), had campaigned in Haryana for his party and Indian National lok Dal (INlD) candidates, much to the dismay of BJP leaders in Haryana.
SAD and BJP has alliance in Punjab, but the Akalis backed INlD in neighbouring Haryana citing “family ties” between Badals and jailed leader Om Parkash Chautala. Chautala, INlD supremo, is in Tihar jail after his conviction in a teachers’ recruitment scandal.
BJP created history by coming to power for the first time in the history of Haryana since its inception in 1966 at its own. Khattar, an RSS ideologue, will become the first chief minister of BJP for Haryana.
BJP leader and former Amritsar MP cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu had openly hit out at the Badals and the Akali Dal during the election campaign in Haryana.
Sidhu had accused the Badals of “back-stabbing” the BJP in Haryana by tying up with the INlD. Sidhu has no love lost for the Badals and the Akali Dal as he was eased out of the Amritsar lok Sabha constituency from where he was elected thrice (2004, 2007 by-poll and 2009), at the behest of the Badals in the lok Sabha battle this year.
The BJP fielded senior leader Arun Jaitley, now the union finance and defence minister, but he lost by over one lakh votes to Congress leader and former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh. An upset Sidhu did not campaign for Jaitley at all.