BJP, SAD hold seat-sharing talks for Punjab polls

Negotiations on seat-sharing between the BJP and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for the 2027 Punjab Assembly polls are underway, sources claimed on Saturday amid speculation that the two parties may join hands again.

After the finalisation of seats, a formal announcement on the alliance is expected this month, according to sources in both the SAD and BJP.

In another development, Union Jal Shakti minister C R Patil, who is also the BJP's Punjab election in-charge, is expected to visit Punjab on November 17. He will be meeting state BJP leaders in Chandigarh, sources said.

The visit assumes significance as talk about a possible reunion between the former allies gathers momentum.

Former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi a few days ago, sources said.

Singh is learnt to have discussed state issues, including drug abuse, with the PM, they said.

The Shiromani Akali Dal had snapped its 24-year-old alliance with the BJP in September 2020 over the now-scrapped three farm laws.

Earlier, Lok Sabha MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal was also part of the Modi government as a minister with Cabinet rank.

Senior Punjab BJP leader Harjit Singh Grewal on Saturday said that the party high command will take a call on any alliance.

Grewal, who is the Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities, said common people and some BJP leaders, who came from other political parties, have a view that elections could be won if an alliance takes place.

"But BJP's core team, comprising workers who have been working for the last 40-50 years, does not want an alliance," Grewal told reporters.

These two views are doing the rounds, he said. "I believe that governments come and go. But the ideology of nationalism must certainly thrive in Punjab," said Grewal.

Last month in Delhi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah predicted an NDA government in Punjab in 2027. When he came to Chandigarh on November 1, he again said an NDA government will be formed in the border state.

The statement reignited the buzz about a possible SAD-BJP alliance.

On November 2, when SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal was asked about the possibility of a re-alliance, he gave a guarded response to speculation, saying, "You will come to know in a few days as to what will happen".

He reiterated that, except for the Congress and the AAP, he is open to an alliance with other parties which accept his party's philosophy.

Punjab BJP leaders, however, have been maintaining that they are preparing to fight all 117 assembly seats in the coming assembly elections.

Earlier in August, when Badal met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his office in the Parliament House, it had ignited speculation about the possibility of the regional party joining hands with the BJP again.

The Punjab assembly polls are due early next year.

In the 2022 assembly polls, the BJP won two seats and the SAD could register victories in three assembly segments out of a total of 117.

Prior to the end of the electoral alliance, both the Akalis and the BJP used to contest together. As per the previous pact in the assembly polls, the BJP used to contest 23 seats and the SAD 94 assembly seats.

In parliamentary polls, the SAD used to fight for 10 seats and the BJP the remaining three.

BJP leaders have indicated that the party is no longer ready to be a junior partner in the alliance.