Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday made it clear that the saffron party would contest the forthcoming Assembly polls under the current arrangement with its alliance partner — Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). At the same time, the party believed that the unfolding political equation in Punjab suits the ruling alliance the most.
“As the opposition is totally scattered, the current political situation is most favourable for the ruling alliance of SAD-BJP,” said Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who was in Jalandhar to meet the party workers in preparation of forthcoming Assembly polls.
The SAD-BJP ruling alliance has completed almost nine-and-half years of rule and there were many achievements to its credit, which are quite visible on the ground, said Jaitley adding that earlier also, SAD-BJP broke all political precedents in Punjab by repeating the Government for second consecutive time.
“Next year also, the same record would be broken again by forming its Government for third term in a row,” he added.
Jaitley avoided direct reply on the issue of former parliamentarian Navjot Singh Sidhu, who has resigned from Rajya Sabha earlier and BJP recently accusing the saffron party for using him merely a “piece of decoration".
“There is no need to make any comment on Sidhu as he has already chosen his path, Good luck to him,” he said.
On the repeated outbursts by Sidhu’s wife and BJP MlA Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu, Jaitley maintained strategic silence saying, “It is obvious that she would decide about herself in the days to come.”
Reacting to the allegations levelled against him to protect a Punjab Cabinet Minister, who was named by drug lord Jagdish Bhola by former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, Jaitley termed all these allegations as baseless. “Investigation in the drug case is being done under the monitoring of the High Court,” he added.