Talk about alliance with Shiromani Akali Dal just a rumour: Punjab BJP president Ashwani Sharma

BATHINDA: Ruling out any possibility of a tie-up with the Shiromani Akali Dal, Punjab BJP president Ashwani Sharma said on Sunday that: “The SAD broke the alliance when we needed it, so what you hear about re-alliance is just rumour.”

Addressing party workers at the swearing-in ceremony of Muktsar district BJP president Satish Asija at Malout, Sharma said a rapid expansion in the state will make the BJP capable of contesting the next parliamentary and assembly elections on its own.” The party workers welcomed the announcement. On the earlier tie-up with the SAD, Sharma said: “It was not a natural political alliance, but one based on the need to pull Punjab out of the dark days of terrorism.”

That alliance survived 23 years from 1997 to 2020 until the Akalis quit it on the issue of agri-marketing laws. Contesting separately in the 2022 assembly elections, the SAD and the BJP were reduced to 3 and 2 seats, respectively. It was the SAD’s lowest ever tally, and even its patron Parkash Singh Badal and party president Sukhbir Singh Badal lost. That debacle sparked the possibility of a re-alliance before the 2024 parliamentary elections, but Sharma has laid those rumours to rest, even though the BJP has accepted many members from the Congress and other rival parties.