In less than a day’s time after meeting its ally Shiv Sena, BJP National President Amit Shah reached out to another ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). Shah held a closed-door meeting with former Punjab CM Sardar Sukhbir Singh Badal and his son, former Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal.
SAD President Sukhbir Badal said, “We are a permanent ally of the NDA. We discussed the strategy for the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections.”
The junior Badal has already urged all allies to remain united and fight polls under Narendra Modi’s leadership. The BJP president also tweeted about this meeting. Even though the Badals welcomed this reach out, in hushed tones they have been speaking about the diminishing role of opposition in the present NDA alliance. BJP-SAD have been NDA allies since 1998 and this association is the second longest. BJP-Sena alliance now runs over two and a half decade.
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The Badals who were in government in Punjab for two consecutive terms faced a drubbing at the hands of Congress in February 2017. The Punjab results were a point where the Akalis were pretty upset about the lack of support from BJP top leadership literally asking the Badals to fend for themselves, a top SAD leader was quoted in a report.
Also key issues including demanding justice for 1984 Sikh riots, which has been a pressing issue for the Punjab based party has not seen much support from the BJP.
In fact, Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal who is from SAD had even threatened to resign if the request to remove GST from Langar items was not accepted. Badal along with other leaders from her party will now meet PM Modi and felicitate him for his government’s decision to remove GST from Langar food items.
With less than a year to go for LS Polls, Akalis are also drawing up a party expansion plan. They have done surveys and are very keen on contesting in states like Haryana and Uttar Pradesh where there is a significant Punjabi living population.