Close X
Tuesday, November 26, 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

India, a pioneer in space programmes: PM's envoy

India, a pioneer in space programmes: PM's envoy
India had established the Space Commission and the Indian Space Research Organisation "very early", and the country was a "pioneer in space programmes in Asia" much ahead of China, the prime minister's special envoy for disarmament and non-proliferation, Rakesh Sood, said here Wednesday.

India, a pioneer in space programmes: PM's envoy

Modi's Varanasi rally spiked, BJP on warpath

Modi's Varanasi rally spiked, BJP on warpath
The BJP Wednesday declared war on the Election Commission after it denied permission to its prime ministerial aspirant Narendra Modi to hold rallies and another event Thursday in Varanasi where he is contesting his second Lok Sabha seat.

Modi's Varanasi rally spiked, BJP on warpath

60 million vote in second last round of Lok Sabha battle

60 million vote in second last round of Lok Sabha battle
Over 60 million people Wednesday voted in 64 Lok Sabha constituencies across seven states - the number higher than the 2009 average - in the second last round of a staggered election widely tipped to usher in a new government.

60 million vote in second last round of Lok Sabha battle

CBI arrests two civic officials for taking bribe

CBI arrests two civic officials for taking bribe
The CBI Tuesday arrested two officials of Delhi's civic agency MCD after they were caught taking bribe.

CBI arrests two civic officials for taking bribe

Chandigarh's Public Toilets in Corruption Stink

Chandigarh's Public Toilets in Corruption Stink
The allotment of tenders for maintenance and advertising of these public toilets is now raising a multi-crore stink, with the city's civic body and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probing the whole affair. 

Chandigarh's Public Toilets in Corruption Stink

UN's Pillay seeks peaceful solution to Ukraine crisis

UN's Pillay seeks peaceful solution to Ukraine crisis
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay Tuesday called on all sides to make greater efforts for a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine crisis.

UN's Pillay seeks peaceful solution to Ukraine crisis