A day after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) indicated that they may go for the next State Assembly polls in 2017 alone if situation arises, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Thursday maintained that the alliance between the two “was in the interest of the nation as well as Punjab”.
Asserting that “all was well” between the two coalition partners, Badal expressed hope that BJP would never sever ties with its “time-tested” ally. “All is well between both the coalition partners. The BJP leadership is well aware of the fact that SAD is their time-tested ally so there is hardly any question of parting away from each other. BJP leadership will never sever ties with its oldest ally,” said Badal while interacting with the reporters on the sidelines of a sports tournament held on the occasion of birth anniversary of first Sikh master, Guru Nanak Dev.
At the same time, Badal “requested” the leaders of both the parties “to refrain from issuing statements against each other”. In fact, he attributed the “rumours” of split between the two to the media. “Since there is no issue of disagreement between the alliance partners, all the rumours regarding the tug of war are highly misleading and merely a creation of media,” he claimed.
“Nothing of the sort has happened all of a sudden which can result in severing of ties between the parties. We have always solved every issue amicably and in future also, all the matters will be sorted out in a smooth manner,” said the five-time Chief Minister. “There is hardly any issue of confrontation between both the parties as the alliance partners have an inbuilt mechanism of solving all issues amicably,” Badal said.
The 86-year-old Akali veteran said that ever since the coalition came into existence, BJP had been a part of the State Government and “each and every decision has been taken by both the parties with mutual understanding”. SAD-BJP alliance was in the interest of the country as well as Punjab, he said. Only a day before, BJP’s newly-appointed State affairs in-charge Ram Shankar Katheria did not rule out the possibility of going for 2017 Assembly polls in the State alone “if Haryana like situation develops”.
The statement assumes significance in the backdrop of reports of friction between the SAD and BJP, with some of the leaders from the two parties making statements in the media fuelling speculations that all is not well between the old allies.
As the relations between the two hit a rough patch after the alliance faced defeat on seven out of 13 lok Sabha seats in 2014 polls, it became worse following SAD decided to side with the Indian National lok Dal in Haryana and campaign against the BJP during for recently-concluded assembly polls. With the BJP achieving clear majority on its own in Haryana, the party has also started to flex its muscle in Punjab.