Putting to rest speculation about the fate of strained ties between the SAD and the BJP, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Sunday said that the alliance was “everlasting” and the two parties will jointly contest the next Assembly elections, due in 2017.
The veteran Akali leader said that there was no question of parting ways and described the reports of differences as only a “media creation”.
“You write it down, Akali and BJP were together, we are together and will be in future as well. We will fight the
next elections together,” Badal said addressing a ‘Meet-the-Press’ programme at Chandigarh Press Club.
When asked that senior BJP Minister Madan Mohan Mittal, who holds the Industries department, has reportedly accused the ruling Akalis of continuously interfering with his work, Badal said: “There is no question of any interference. Powers are delegated and things are absolutely clear at what level a Secretary is to decide, at what level a Minister is to take a decision.”
When questioned about the BJP’s “demand of a greater share” in number of seats for 2017 Assembly polls, the 87-year-old five-time Chief Minister replied, “We have such a wonderful relation with BJP like one has with one’s wife (close relations). I mean it is like ghee and khichdi, no one can differentiate one from the other.”
To a question if Deputy Chief Minister and his son Sukhbir Badal will be made the State’s next Chief Minister in case SAD-BJP forms the Government after 2017 polls, Badal said that such issues “are for the party to decide”.