The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday indicated that there was “likelihood” of its swapping some seats with its ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for the upcoming lok Sabha elections 2014 in Punjab.
“There is possibility of the BJP changing some seats with the SAD in the next lok Sabha polls in the state,” said Punjab BJP president Kamal Sharma addressing a press conference. While not specifying which seats the party might swap with the SAD, the state BJP head also maintained that the party might end up contesting from its traditional seats — Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur.
On the possibility of an increase in BJP's seat share, Sharma said that since the stakes were very high this time, the matter was not under consideration. “Our alliance with the SAD is based on trust and maturity. We want to win all 13 seats in Punjab,” said Sharma. Out of the total 13 parliamentary seats in Punjab, BJP fields its candidates on three seats, with its alliance partner contesting from 10.
On Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Sharma said that both the BJP and SAD cadres were very much enthused by the decision of projecting Modi as the Prime Ministerial candidate of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). “We have already gone into the election mode. We have appointed in-charges and co-in-charges for all 13 seats for better co-ordination between the two parties,” he said.
Sharma was speaking with the media persons after several Congress leaders and supporters joined the BJP on Sunday giving the Punjab unit a shot in the arm ahead of the lok Sabha polls at a function. BJP Punjab unit chief welcomed the leaders and supporters to the party fold, saying that the induction of Congress leaders will boost BJP workers and benefit the party.
Among those who shifted their allegiance to BJP were block Congress committee (Rural) president Inderjit Singh Khalyan, local Youth Congress president Gagandip Soni, block secretary Chandan Ghai, Bhaghana village sarpanch Sukhchain Singh and former sarpanch Surjit Singh. Addressing the gathering, Khalyan said that they were disillusioned with the Congress and was being sidelined due to factionalism.
District Congress committee president Harjit Singh Parmar, however, had claimed two days ago that Khalyan had been expelled from primary membership of Congress for six years for his anti-party activities.