CHANDIGARH: After facing defeats in the recently held polls in Jharkhand and Maharashtra, there are speculations over whether the Bhartiya Janata Party enter into a poll-alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) for the upcoming Delhi assembly election.
While the SAD is eyeing for eight seats and JJP wants to contest on 18 seats in the national capital.
Sources in the BJP claim that the party leadership is in talks with SAD for the pre-poll alliance as it is one of the oldest NDA partners. Even in the past, in Delhi, both parties had an alliance in 2015 elections where BJP gave four seats to Akali Aal. Of the four, SAD they fought two on their own symbol and two with BJP.
The SAD traditionally contests on Hari Nagar, Rajouri Garden, Kalkaji and Sadar Bazaar assembly seats. But this time besides these four seats, they also want to contest on Rajinder Nagar, Moti Nagar, Tilak Nagar and Rohtas Nagar as on these seats there is 15 to 35 per cent Sikh votes.
The Akali Dal’s core committee of Delhi unit has identified these eight seats where the party is in a strong position and wants to contest on its own symbol.
The party president Sukhbir Singh Badal had recently met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and in this regard, a final decision is likely to come out very soon. As the party has already formed a three-member committee comprising of Rajya Sabha MPs Naresh Gujaral and Balwinder Singh Bhunder and former Lok Sabha MP Prem Singh Chandumajra to work out a seat-sharing formula with the BJP.
SAD’s Delhi Unit President Harmeet Singh Kalka said the party has got many applications on each of these seats and wants to expand its base. Interestingly, in the recent Haryana assembly elections, both SAD and BJP fought separately after the saffron party denied tying up with Akali Dal as the latter demanded more seats.
Meanwhile, the JJP plans to contest on 18 seats in the national capital as it claims it is strong on outer Delhi seats. It wants an alliance with the BJP in Delhi as it did in Haryana, but is also ready to fight solo if there is no tie-up with the saffron party.
Sources in the saffron party said that as far as JJP is considered, there are no talks with it on any alliance by the Delhi unit of BJP, but the party high command might be in talks with the party.
Haryana Deputy CM and JJP founder Dushyant Chautala said that a five-member committee had been constituted in this regard which is considering all the facts and a possibility of an alliance. The party will take a couple of days before arriving at a final decision.
Already Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has hinted for a BJP-JJP alliance in Delhi.