In therun up to the assembly polls in Punjab, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) onSaturday announced that it has formed an alliance with the Mayawati-led BahujanSamaj Party (BSP) for the elections slated to be held in early 2022. Earlier,SAD was in ties with BJP, which it broke last year over the Centre’scontentious farm bills.
With thenew alliance, Shiromani Akali Dal aims to fill the gap in several seats afterits split with BJP. SAD President Sukhbir Badal said here the BSP will contestin 20 out of the 117 seats, whereas his party will contest the remaining seats.
Theseats are -- Kartarpur, Jalandhar West, Jalandhar North, Phagwara, Nawanshahr,Hoshiarpur City, Tanda, Dasuya, Chamkaur Sahib, Bassi Pathana, Mehal Kalan,Ludhiana North, Sujanpur, Boha, Pathankot, Anandpur Sahib, Mohali, AmritsarNorth, Amritsar Central and Payal.
Sukhbir Badal said a coordination committee ofleaders from both the parties would be formed soon to ensure seamless workingin all the constituencies
“It willbe the beginning of a new socio-political movement not just in Punjab but alsoin the country where minorities and under-privileged classes will standtogether on one platform,” said a senior SAD leader.
DaljitSingh Cheema, the SAD spokesperson said "We will work to end corruptionand scams under Congress' leadership. The current government is anti-Dalits andanti-farmers while we will work for everyone's welfare and development,"he added.
SAD and BSP
TheAkali Dal and Bahujan Samaj Party are joining hands after 27 years. Earlier, inthe 1996 Lok Sabha elections, the two parties in the alliance had bagged 11 outof 13 seats in Punjab. BSP has then won all three seats it had contested whileSAD won eight out of 10 seats.
Lastweek, Sukhbir Singh Badal had announced that his party is open to tie-upsbarring the Congress, BJP and Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party. “We cannotalign with these parties. We will form an alliance and we are open to others.No chance to go with BJP at all” said Badal.
Meanwhile,BSP has a good hold over the 31 percent Dalit votes in Punjab, where Dalitconstitute almost 40% of the population. Mayavati’s party will contest from 20seats while Akali Dal from 97 seats.
Akali Dal and BJP
TheAkali Dal was the oldest ally of the Bhartiya Janata Party dating back to 1992.It used to be the senior partner in the alliance with BJP contesting over 90 outof 117 seats and the rest went to BJP.
In theLok Sabha elections too, Akali Dal fielded candidates in 10 out of 13 seats andthe rest three were offered to BJP.
SukhbirSingh Badal-led Akali Dal pulled out NDA in September 2020 over the threecontroversial agricultural bills also known as black laws. These bills set offprotests from farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana.
Whenthese bills were presented in the Lok Sabha, the only Akali minister in PMModi’s cabinet Harsimrat Kaur Badal resigned from her position, and a week laterSAD broke their alliance with BJP and termed the bills as ‘lethal and disastrous’for the country.