Jupinderjit singh
Tribune news service
Chandigarh, September 23
The main leader of the BJP and member of the central panel of the party, Madan Mohan Mittal, today challenged the Akalis to break the alliance with the BJP, saying that the BJP was ready to contest the 117 seats of the Assembly in Punjab. He stated that several leaders from Akali, AAP and Congress wanted to go over to the BJP.
will seek 59 seats
The Akali Dal can form a government in Punjab in 2022 only if they maintain the alliance. The BJP will contest 59 seats this time.
Mittal said that the Akalis could form the next government in Punjab in 2022 only if they maintained the alliance and that the BJP would contest 59 of the total seats in the Assembly. So far, the SAD has contested 94 seats and the BJP 23. “The SAD cannot obtain a majority if it disputes 94 seats, and therefore the BJP will contest 59 seats,” he argued.
However, the head of the Punjab BJP, Ashwani Sharma, said there was no discussion about the breaking of the alliance. SAD spokesperson Dr. DS Cheema said his party would only react to an official statement from the BJP.
Mittal was at the head of a group within the BJP that prior to the 2017 elections had advocated breaking the alliance. He said that the Akalis still had to wash the “stain of fixing forgiveness” from Sirsa dera’s head. “I think the Akalis did not participate in the sacrilege incidents, but they cannot convince people to make Akal Takht spare Dera’s head,” he said.
On the three-hour “chakka jam” proposed by SAD on September 25, Mittal said the Akalis made a U-turn on the farm’s three Bills only after the farmers ‘harna’ out of their home in the village of Badal.
Meanwhile, SAD chief Sukhbir Badal today asked CM Captain Amarinder Singh to declare Punjab the “main market” for agricultural products so that agricultural laws will not apply to the state.
