Farmers Movement Archive

Punjab polls 2022: BJP, Amarinder announce alliance

The Bharatiya Janata Party and former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s Punjab Lok Congress on Friday formally announced to join hands to fight the state assembly polls scheduled early next year. The announcement came after Amarinder on Friday called on BJP Punjab in-charge and Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat at his residence in the national capital. After more than an hour-long meeting, both Amarinder and Shekhawat addressed the media and announced the alliance between the two parties. “After seven rounds of talks, today I confirm (and) make it clear that the BJP and Amarinder will contest assembly elections in Punjab together. Topics like seat-sharing will be discussed later,” said Shekhawat, adding that the seat distribution will be announced at an “appropriate time”. “We are ready and we are going to win this election. The decision on seat-sharing will be taken on the seat-to-seat basis, with winnability being the priority. We are 101% sure of winning this election,” said Amarinder. The former two-time Punjab CM also announced the alliance on Twitter, posting a photo in which he can be seen hugging Shekhawat. “We have formally announced a seat adjustment with the BJP for the 2022 Punjab Vidhan Sabha elections,” he wrote.This was the second meeting between Amarinder and Shekhawat. Earlier, the BJP leader had visited Amarinder’s farm house near Chandigarh to discuss the alliance. The saffron party is also holding talks with Rajya Sabha member Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa’s Akali Dal (Sanyukt), and a meeting between the two is expected in the next two days. BJP likely to be senior partnerAccording to senior BJP leaders privy to the talks, the national party will be the bigger partner in the alliance and may contest on at least 60 seats in the 117-seat Punjab assembly.“The party is adamant on contesting on seats dominated by Hindu and scheduled caste population. It also wants to keep more focus on Majha and Doaba regions,” a senior party functionary said. Sources said both Amarinder and the BJP are likely to give the final shape to the alliance by the end of this month. Amarinder had led the Congress to a decisive win in 2017, defeating the Akali-BJP alliance by wresting 77 seats in the Punjab assembly. In September this year, he resigned as the CM following months of infighting with Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu. Later, he left the Congress and floated his own party. The BJP in 2017 contested on 23 seats, but managed to win only three in one of its worst performances in Punjab. The SAD-BJP alliance, in fact, came third with 18 seats, behind the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (20 seats). Last year, the SAD parted ways with the saffron party over the contentious farm laws.

Hindustan Times

17-12-2021

Chandigarh