Fighting among themselves before the big battle of civic body polls, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday decided to set up a panel to resolve the issue of seat sharing.
The two allies has decided that they will contest the ensuing municipal corporation and nagar panchayat or council polls, to be held on December 17, as per the previous seat sharing agreement.
A SAD-BJP combine coordination panel, including the state BJP chief and Union Minister Vijay Sampla and former Minister and SAD secretary Daljit Singh Cheema, will look into the same after it was pointed that at many places local leaders are demanding more seats for their respective parties.
The decision was taken on Friday after the top leadership of both the parties held a meeting following their separate party level meetings.
The meetings came a day after the State Election Commission has set the ball rolling for the much-awaited civic body polls by formally declared its schedule. The nomination process will start from Saturday, December 2, till December 6 — Wednesday.
In Jalandhar, Patiala, and Amritsar, the leaders of both the SAD and BJP are demanding more seats in its share. Even as the party has now decided that the pre-agreed seat sharing formula would be implemented this time too, the top leaders may have tough time to resolve the issue.
In Amritsar, the saffron party is seeking more seats. Interestingly, the number of seats has been increased from 65 to 85 this time. During the previous corporation polls, SAD had contested on 28 seats while the BJP on has 37 seats in its favour.
likewise, in Jalandhar, the saffron party is demanding 80 percent seats against the previous seat sharing of 65 percent (BJP) and 35 percent (SAD). The demand came as after the delimitation, the total number of seats has increased from 60 to 80.
“We have decided that where new wards have been created, the same will be divided among both the parties as per existing arrangement ratio,” Cheema told The Pioneer.
He said that the decision that has been taken in today’s meeting would be communicated to all local leaders and in case, there was still any dissatisfaction or issue, it will be resolved after talks.
For the purpose, the senior leaders of both the parties will be going to the election areas from Saturday and take along the local leadership to divide the wards between SAD and BJP for which duties have been already assigned, said Cheema.
During the meeting, the two parties also decided that it would not allow the ruling Congress to misuse the official machinery, as was done during the recently concluded Gurdaspur lok Sabha bye-election.
An appeal has been made to the Election Commission to keep a close watch on the ruling party to ensure free and fair polling process.
The meeting was attended by SAD president Sukhbir Badal, party senior vice president Maheshinder Singh Grewal and Daljit Singh Cheema and party general secretary Bikram Singh Majithia. From the BJP, its state in-charge Prakash Jha, state president Vijay Sampla, former state chiefs Kamal Sharma, Rajinder Bhandari, and Ashwani Sharma, besides the former minister Manoranjan Kalia participated in the meeting.
The combine has decided to contest polls on its own poll symbols. “BJP will contest the MC elections on its own symbol in class I and class II category, whereas in class III, party will not contest on its symbol,” said Sampla.
“The development done by the previous SAD-BJP government and non-performance of the present Congress government during its nine-month period will be the main poll plank in this election. The workers of both the SAD and BJP are in full enthusiastic mood and we will win these elections with good margins,” said Cheema.