The simmering discontentment among Punjab Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers against the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Wednesday virtually turned into a storm in a teacup. What was so far a whisper in the BJP corridors turned boisterous with the workers taking up the issue of alleged indifference with the recently-appointed Punjab BJP election in-charge Narendra Singh Tomar.
Projecting a calm face, Tomar ruled out the possibility of a political storm. He categorically maintained that the age-old alliance partners, the SAD and the BJP, would contest the 2017 polls together on the issue of development.
On his first visit after assigning the new job by the BJP’s national president Amit Shah in poll-bound Punjab, Union Minister Tomar held back-to-back meetings with each and every one that matters in the State party unit, right from the top to the grass root level.
Even as Tomar and State BJP chief Vijay Sampla held high the banner of “all is well” within the coalition partners, the office-bearers, including some of the district or block presidents, alleged “apathy” on the part of the SAD leaders, especially its halqa in-charges.
They rued that no one pay any heed to them while halqa in-charges were given all the attention by the officials.
“Ab main aa gaya hun…sabki sununga (Now I have come…would listen to everyone),” said Tomar while evading a clear reply.
He added that there was no such controversy as I have talked to my colleagues. Tomar also ruled out any differences with the SAD on the issue of giving space to the BJP in Government advertisements and other publicity material.
“The Government’s campaign would run on the Government’s name…It is the party’s campaign, the coalition’s campaign would have faces from both,” said Tomar, making it amply clear that the BJP will contest elections with its decade-old partner SAD to form the next Government in Punjab.
“The past two terms have SAD-BJP’s coalition Govern-ment. It has worked well in all the spheres which is visible too…The achievements of both the Narendra Modi Government at the Centre and the State Government along with the developmental work would ensure SAD-BJP alliance’s victory in the 2017 polls,” he said.
Making it clear that the BJP would not connect the surgical strikes with the elections, Tomar said that they would go to elections solely on the development plank.
Tomar had a series of meetings with the state BJP’s core group, followed by a joint meeting of party’s legislators, mayors, district presidents, block presidents, social media cell, among others.
“These were general meetings to get to know things and set the ball rolling for the polls…we will now frequently hold such meetings,” he added.
Tomar also had a “general” meeting with the SAD president and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal. “It was a general introductory meeting,” he said adding that the two parties would talk on “issues” later on while ruling out any discussion on seat sharing or other related subjects.
“We will talk on such issues but before that our party would do its homework,” he said.