It is interesting to note that the Bhartiya Janata Party has made no effort to contact or reconcile with its oldest ally Shiromani Akali Dal over the farmers’ bill in the past 10 days. It seems like the BJP has already taken the tough decision to go alone in Punjab. Shiromani Akali Dal founding ally of the NDA. BJP has now started to plan its strategy for the 2022 Punjab assembly elections alone.
The emergency meeting of the core committee of the party’s Punjab unit was held in Chandigarh on Sunday under the chairmanship of State President Ashwani Sharma. It is learned that party workers have been asked to be active in each assembly constituency of the state.
Later, talking to media BJP leaders termed Akalis scrapping ties as unfortunate and said that the party is ready to go alone in the next elections. Former state president and minister in BJP SAD government Madan Mohan Mittal said that this would not have happened if former Punjab CM Prakash Singh Badal would have been at the helm of party affairs in Shiromani Akali Dal. This decision would harm SAD more than BJP in the next election.
The BJP has been a party with urban voters in Punjab, with its influence only in 7 to 8 districts. Apart from this, after Navjot Singh Sidhu left, there was no major Sikh leader left. In the year 2019, it got 10 percent votes and only two MPs and MLAs were able to win from Punjab.
Party sources say that before the 2022 elections, the BJP is looking at smaller parties, including the faction of Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, which had split from Shiromani Akali Dal. Although Dhindsa says that it would be better to hold the hands of a regional party in place of BJP. He claimed that his priority is to help farmers overcome their problems first.
At the same time, according to BJP’s Punjab President Aswani Sharma, the Shiromani Akali Dal is wrong to say that BJP is anti-farmer. Farmers should not rely on rumors about minimum support price as procurement of grains at Minimum Support Price (MSP) in Punjab has started from Saturday.
In alliance with the Akali Dal, the BJP contested 23 out of 117 seats in Punjab. In addition to state president Ashwani Sharma, National Secretary General Tarun Chugh, Madan Mohan Mittal, Avinash Rai Khanna, White Malik, Vijay Sampla, Brij Lal Rinwa, Manoranjan Kalia, Prof Rajinder Bhandari, Takshan Sood, Jeevan Gupta, Dr. Subhash Sharma, and Malvinder Singh Kang also participated in the BJP core group meeting. In the core committee meeting, Sharma said that the Punjab BJP believes that the Shiromani Akali Dal’s separation from the NDA is very unfortunate. The BJP has always respected the constituents of the NDA.
In Punjab too, the BJP has always played an alliance with the Akali Dal for the peace and brotherhood of Punjab. Now the BJP does not agree with the Akali Dal on the issues on which the Akali Dal has broken ties. Punjab BJP now strongly believes that the agricultural laws passed by the Modi government are in the interest of farmers. The BJP has constantly discussed these laws with the Shiromani Akali Dal. During the last three months, whatever questions the Akali Dal raised about these laws, the Central Government answered them all. BJP Punjab believes that now opposing at the last moment proves the Akali Dal’s political interest.
He said that the work done by the Modi government in the last 6 years in the interest of farmers is unmatched. Several steps have been taken to benefit farmers including the implementation of the Swaminathan Committee report to give MSP to farmers at one and a half times the cost price, a record increase in government purchases every year, depositing Rs 6000 directly to the accounts of 11 crore farmers, ensuring the supply of neem coated urea, strengthening the credit card system and issuing a fund of 1.5 lakh crore rupees for the infrastructure of the villages.
Ashwani Sharma expressed his disappointment towards SAD. He said that the Akali Dal is standing with the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party doing misleading propaganda in Punjab today. Punjab BJP assures the farmers of Punjab that there was MSP, there is MSP and there will be MSP. The Punjab BJP appeals to farmers and farmers’ organizations to leave the movement and come forward for talks.
Senior party leader Madan Mohan Mittal targeted Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal while interacting with select journalists after the core committee meeting. Referring to Prakash Singh Badal, he said that today the party has gone into the hands of the children and no one knows who the advisors of the ‘Bacha Party’ are.
Source: dnaindia.com