SAD asks for five seats
by Sarbjit Singh
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Nov 1 — The Shiromani Akali Dal, headed by Mr Parkash Singh Badal, has scaled down its demand to five seats from 10 for contesting in the Delhi Assembly election as the BJP ally.

A few days ago, Mr Avtar Singh Hit, President of the Delhi unit of the SAD, had told TNS that it had demanded at least 10 seats for its candidates in Sikh-dominated localities of the Capital.

However, a senior Akali leader who held negotiations with BJP leaders on the seat allocation issue, said Mr Badal had told the SAD negotiation committee headed by Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa that demand on the seats should be rational.

Following the directive from Mr Badal, the demand was brought down to five seats, the senior Akali leader said. However, there is a deadlock between the SAD and the BJP over the constituencies to be allocated to the SAD.

The SAD is insisting that it should be allocated Tilak Nagar, Vishnu Garden, Jangpura, Gandhi Nagar, Sabzi Mandi or Model town constituencies. However, the BJP has offered the SAD so far only four seats and these are: Vishnu garden, Rajouri Garden, Jangpura and Gandhi Nagar.

A senior Akali leader contacted in Delhi by TNS on the phone said that Tilak Nagar and Vishnu garden were dominated by Sikh voters but the BJP was not offering the Tilak Nagar seat to the SAD.

The Delhi Akali leader said the BJP countered the SAD argument that it would also put up Sikh candidates like Mr Harsharan Singh Balli, who is a minister in the Delhi Government.

However, the BJP has not insisted that the Akali candidate use the BJP election symbol. The BJP has told the SAD team that it would not mind if the SAD contested on its own election symbol. The Akali leader said the issue of symbol would be decided by Mr Parkash Singh Badal.

The Delhi Akali leader said some of the seats offered to the SAD by the BJP were never won by the latter. He was not sure whether Akali candidates would win these seats, he added.

The Akali leader said the BJP leadership had been told that the SAD wanted that its candidates should win all seats. So it was avoiding risk.

Meanwhile, Mr Paramjit Singh Sarna, General Secretary of the SAD and former president of the Delhi Gurdwara Parbhandak Committee, said a meeting would be held with BJP leaders soon to clinch the seat sharing issue. He said there were at least 18 seats in Delhi where Sikh voters determine the outcome of election. In this view the SAD demand of five seats was rational.