Farmers Movement Archive

BJP strong enough to go it alone in Punjab: State chief

Hoshiarpur Punjab BJP president Ashwani Sharma on Wednesday said that his party is strong enough to contest all 117 assembly seats in the state in 2022. Addressing the media in Hoshiarpur, he said the BJP played a significant role in the formation of the coalition government with the Shiromani Akali Dal in 2012 and now it’s all ready to form the government on its own. “We put our candidates on 23 seats and made them (SAD) contest the rest but it does not mean we do not have the requisite organisational strength to fight the elections on our own. We will contest all 117 seats and form the government,” Sharma said. Declining comment on the chances of rapprochement with the SAD or prospects of fresh alliances, he said that at present the party is focused on contesting all 117 seats. Union minister Som Parkash, who was also present in the press conference, said that the SAD’s departure had not caused any loss to the BJP. He said that its president Sukhbir Singh Badal was convinced with the farm ordinances but later took a U-turn. The minister said that the Congress should have welcomed the new farm laws as it had envisaged the same agriculture reforms in its election manifesto. “The bills should have been unanimously passed in Parliament but the Congress and other political parties played foul. They are misleading farmers on the issue whereas experts such as SS Johal have endorsed the bills,” Parkash said. He said that the BJP would clear farmers’ misconceptions and convince them that the Narendra Modi government is actually working for their uplift.

Hindustan Times

07-10-2020

City