Even as the top rung of the BJP has ruled out the possibility of going solo in the next Assembly elections, whispers against the alliance are now being heard loud and clear.
Among the ones to raise voice on the issue is party's firebrand leader Navjot Kaur Sidhu, whose husband, Navjot Singh Sidhu, only recently campaigned vociferously against the SAD in Haryana. Sidhu, also a Chief Parliamentary Secretary in the Punjab Government, on Wednesday minced no words to say that saffron party's success in the State would be possible only if its decide to go without Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
"If BJP wants to be successful in Punjab, it should snap ties with the SAD and should contest elections alone," said Sidhu, on the sidelines of a function to felicitate newly-appointed Union Minister of State Vijay Sampla at BJP's head office in Chandigarh. Sidhu went on to attack Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his deputy son Sukhbir Badal for holding the top two positions in the State. She asserted that Akali Dal holding both posts of Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister amounts to dictatorship attitude in a democratic set up.
At the same time, she said that it is on the party high command to decide over the alliance, and she is just a party worker and all these views are her personal. On the other hand, Punjab BJP chief Kamal Sharma made it clear that there was no rift with Akali Dal and the alliance very much exists.
Sidhu had earlier also created a controversy by commenting that a section of BJP workers were unhappy with the alliance, and wanted to go alone in the next Assembly polls. She had also said that the BJP workers were not being given due importance by the Akali Government, and the voice of workers on ground was that the alliance should break.
Terming Sidhu's comments as "her personal opinion", Sharma said: "So far, we are not getting any feedback from party workers that the alliance should not continue." On being asked whether BJP will contest the 2017 Assembly polls in alliance with SAD, Sharma remained non-committal, saying "let's see".
Sharma, while responding to the reports of BJP cabinet ministers at times complaining about not given due weightage, argued that problems exists in alliance, but these were sorted out time to time.SAD-BJP alliance in Punjab hit a rough patch following series of events reportedly led to friction between the two allies. The situation reached a flash point when the Akali Dal decided to join hands with the Indian National lok Dal (INlD) in Haryana assembly polls citing "family ties", and campaigning against the BJP.
BJP is now flexing its muscle in Punjab with the party solely achieving "clear majority" in the neighboring state, and forming its government for the first time ever in Haryana.