Close X
Sunday, November 24, 2024
ADVT 
India

BJP-Akalis: Friends in Punjab, foes in Haryana

Darpan News Desk IANS, 09 Aug, 2014 08:26 AM
  • BJP-Akalis: Friends in Punjab, foes in Haryana
Sworn allies in Punjab for over three decades, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal are political foes in adjoining Haryana. Weird?
 
The BJP and the Akali Dal have been running an alliance government in Punjab since 2007. The Akalis are also part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Harsimrat Badal, from the Akali Dal, is a minister in the Narendra Modi government.
 
In Haryana, which goes to the polls later this year, the Akalis have, however, stitched an alliance with the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD).
 
The BJP, which has a tie-up with the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) led by Kuldeep Bishnoi, son of former chief minister Bhajan Lal, is all set to oppose the INLD-Akali Dal alliance and the ruling Congress.
 
The Akalis, especially its seniormost leader and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, have put the BJP on a sticky wicket by siding with the INLD - and by raking up the row over the control of gurdwaras in Haryana.
 
In Punjab, Badal asserts that the alliance with the BJP is "forever". But the same does not hold true in Haryana.
 
With the BJP eyeing its first major electoral victory in Haryana's assembly polls, the controversy and violence associated with the control of Haryana gurdwaras could not have come at a worse time - just before the assembly elections.
 
The BJP national leadership had to, behind the scenes, restrain Badal recently from taking the gurdwaras matter too far as this could affect the BJP in the coming elections.
 
In the recent Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won seven of the 10 parliamentary seats in Haryana. This was the best performance by the BJP, which did not have a solid political base in Haryana.
 
The BJP had contested eight seats in the state.
 
The BJP's alliance partner, HJC, lost both the seats it contested, Hisar and Sirsa. The two seats were lost to INLD candidates who were supported by the Akali Dal.
 
In fact, the INLD candidate and winner of the Sirsa seat, Charanjit Singh Rori, was an Akali Dal legislator earlier.
 
On the Hisar seat, HJC president Kuldeep Bishnoi, whom the BJP had once projected as the future chief minister of the BJP-HJC alliance, lost by around 32,000 votes to INLD's Dushyant Chautala, great-grandson of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal.
 
Badal went and campaigned for the INLD candidates on both seats, which technically meant that he was opposing the BJP-HJC alliance.
 
Badal had tried, before the Lok Sabha polls, to forge an alliance between the BJP and the INLD, but the BJP leadership opted for the HJC.
 
The BJP and INLD have in the past been politically together and even ran an alliance government in Haryana.
 
For the BJP and the Akali Dal, political friendship seems to end at Punjab's border with Haryana.

MORE India ARTICLES

Modi's visit a symbolic new start: Nepali daily

Modi's visit a symbolic new start: Nepali daily
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's two-day visit to Nepal marks "more of a symbolic new start", said a Nepali daily that noted the failure to reach...

Modi's visit a symbolic new start: Nepali daily

CIA penetrated every sphere of UPA: Natwar Singh

CIA penetrated every sphere of UPA: Natwar Singh
Former external affairs minister Natwar Singh has alleged that the US exerted pressure on then prime minister Manmohan Singh in the choice of his ministers...

CIA penetrated every sphere of UPA: Natwar Singh

44 Kerala nurses from Libya to reach Kochi Tuesday

44 Kerala nurses from Libya to reach Kochi Tuesday
The first batch of 44 Kerala nurses, evacuated from Libya, will arrive at Kochi on a Middle East airline Tuesday morning, said a state government official....

44 Kerala nurses from Libya to reach Kochi Tuesday

From US to village India: IITian promotes rural innovation

From US to village India: IITian promotes rural innovation
An IIT-Kanpur alumnus did something unusual on returning to India in the 1980s with a PhD degree from the US - shunning a lucrative career with a multinational....

From US to village India: IITian promotes rural innovation

Nearly 5,000 Indians rescued from Iraq so far: Sushma

Nearly 5,000 Indians rescued from Iraq so far: Sushma
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj Monday said nearly 5,000 Indians have been brought back from Iraq since it was embroiled in conflict, and...

Nearly 5,000 Indians rescued from Iraq so far: Sushma

War of Domination: HSGPC continues siege of Kurukshetra gurdwara

War of Domination: HSGPC continues siege of Kurukshetra gurdwara
Members of the newly-constituted Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (HSGPC) Sunday continued their siege of Kurukshetra's Gurdwara Chatti Patshahi on the...

War of Domination: HSGPC continues siege of Kurukshetra gurdwara