The top leadership of BJP's Punjab unit will meet Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Wednesday to discuss the current State of affairs in Punjab besides the Deputy Chief Minister and SAD president Sukhbir Badal’s alleged remarks against the BJP Government in Haryana.
Sukhbir Badal’s recent remarks at a rally on Sunday organised by BJP’s opposition party Indian National lok Dal in Rohtak has irked the BJP leadership, not only in the neighbouring Haryana, but also in Punjab.
Taking a dig at the BJP Government in Haryana, Sukhbir had stated that there has been “no Government control in Haryana in the past 11 years” — including the two consecutive Congress Governments and also one year of the current regime led by Manohar lal Khattar. However, a day before, he clarified that he meant to say, “10 years of the Congress Government”.
SAD is sharing power with the BJP in Punjab since 2007, and also at the Centre. However, SAD, citing family relations and age-old ties, fought 2014 Haryana state assembly elections in alliance with the INlD — a decision that worsened the alliance between SAD and BJP in Punjab.
Sources informed The Pioneer that the BJP delegation, including State party chief Kamal Sharma, four Cabinet Ministers, Chief Parliamentary Secretaries, among others, will meet Badal in the morning.
The main issue of discussion would be the Sukhbir’s statement against the BJP, which the party believed, will send a wrong signal among the masses, especially when elections are round the corner in Punjab.
Already holding a divergent view with its alliance partner on several issues including seeking release of Khalistani terrorist Devinderpal Bhullar, SAD’s decision to support INlD for 2014 Haryana polls while retaining its alliance with BJP in Punjab and at the Centre had failed to go down well with the BJP.
It followed with BJP’s gaining clear majority sans any support at a time when the SAD-BJP relationship was at its nadir and the alliance’s future was not just a matter of speculation but also debate.
With a series of wins in its kitty, the saffron brigade become more assertive in Punjab, and had also gone vocal against the SAD on many decisions. BJP leaders have started talking tough on various issues related to governance, and had even started asserting more pressure in demanding an equal say in the government functioning.
Even as the BJP high command had, couple of times, assured that the SAD-BJP alliance would continue, the state’s party leadership did not rule out any possibility of going it all alone in the next assembly polls.
Several BJP leaders, in fact, had also indulged in war of words with the SAD leaders every now and then bringing forth the widening fissures between the two allies. Sukhbir’s recent comment has once again reopened the old wounds.
Besides Sukhbir’s alleged comments, the BJP would also discuss the present situation in the State in the wake of unrest among people owing to sacrilege incidents.