Alliance with Akali Dal in Punjab cost BJP heavily: Hardeep Puri
Darpan News Desk IANS, 11 Jan, 2022 11:56 AM
New Delhi, Jan 11 (IANS) Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday said that he "personally" feels that alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab had cost the BJP heavily.
Puri, the BJP election co-incharge for Punjab, said: "It is my personal view that our alliance in the past had cost us heavily in many ways. Today with the people who are joining us, we will take Punjab on a fast path of development."
He said that earlier in the 117-member Punjab Assembly, the BJP used to contest 22-23 seats and won three seats in last Assembly polls but now the party has left with just two MLA and five per cent vote share.
He claimed that a new political situation is developing in Punjab and in this, with new alliance partners and people joining the party, the BJP will go up and up.
"When we were in alliance, the BJP never contested more than 22-23 seats and Alkalis were in dominant position. The BJP was not able to rise in the state. This time we formed an alliance with Captain Amarinder Singh, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and people are joining us. Now we are equal partners and it is a good opportunity for us to rise in Punjab. In the five corner contest, BJP will have a good show in Punjab," he said as a few leaders from Punjab joined the BJP at the party headquarters here.
The BJP is jointly contesting the Punjab assembly election with former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh's Punjab Lok Congress and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa's Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt). The three parties have formed a six-member committee, comprising two each from three parties to decide the seat sharing formula. Three parties will also make a common manifesto. Polling in Punjab will be held on February 14 and counting of votes will take place on March 10.
Taking a dig at Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Puri said: "The time he (Yadav) took to conduct the trial run of Kanpur Metro, our government has run the metro. Uttar Pradesh is number one in implementing all the Central government schemes. There is a saying 'success has many father', and Akhilesh is trying to take credit for our work."
With farmers protesting at the Delhi borders for over a year, several incidents of protestors clashing with the Delhi Police have been reported. Here Delhi Police have deployed extra personnel and they often talk to the farmers leaders and Haryana Police to maintain peace.
Furnishing details about the robbery, a police official said that the incident took place on November 23 when the accused, along with another man, robbed an Apple iPhone after putting a knife on the victim's neck when he was crossing a park in western Delhi.
The detection of two cases of Omicron, the latest variant of Covid-19, in Karnataka was not unexpected in view of the interconnected world that people live in, Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia, said on Thursday.
In a major reprieve to traders ahead of the assembly polls, the Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday decided to exempt about 1.50 lakh cases from assessment related to cases of 'C' form from 2014-15 to 2017-18.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa on Wednesday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), ahead of the next year's Punjab Assembly elections.
Stating that the BJP government should stop attempting to divide farmers even at this stage - two days after the three farm laws were repealed in the Parliament, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha on Wednesday on condemned the government's statement that it does not have data about farmers' death.
