Will go by SAD''s poll strategy, says Shah

KV Prasad

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 25

The BJP today sought to downplay reports of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) receiving large support in Punjab, where Assembly elections are due next year, saying it will contest in alliance with its traditional ally, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

Reluctant to even acknowledged the presence of AAP, the BJP president, Amit Shah, sought to say that the hype was visible but that only a party spread to the grassroots could make a difference. “Punjab is not Delhi...what matters is whether the party has a base”, Shah elaborated in an apparent reference to questions on reports of AAP gaining traction in Punjab. The nascent AAP swept to power in the 70-member Delhi Assembly poll last year, bagging 67 seats while the BJP got the rest.

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Asked what would be its strategy in Punjab, the BJP chief said it was for its lead partner in the coalition (SAD) to draw up a plan. As for Navjot Singh Sidhu, he remarked that the party MP, who had sulked for a while, had campaigned for the BJP in different parts of the country.

To questions on Uttar Pradesh, a key state in the Hindi heartland, the BJP chief said the party saw the ruling Samajwadi Party as its principal opponent in the next Assembly elections.

He said the party was yet to decide on the issue of projecting a Chief Minister and that the BJP had a strong base of workers who needed to be energised for the Assembly poll. Shah said that ahead of a formal launch of its campaign in UP, he would visit different places and assess the situation.

Shah was the chief coordinator for the party in UP for the 2014 Lok Sabha poll and is considered the architect behind the strategy that resulted in the BJP winning an unprecedented 71 of the 80 seats while two were won by its ally Apna Dal.

On the newly formed North East Development Alliance, he said it was a conglomeration of 24 regional parties and its convener was Hemanta Biswal Sarma. Under the scheme of things, the post would be held by rotation by each party.