PU poll alliance with SOI has no bearing on Punjab Assembly election strategy: BJP leader Poonia
The student election and the statements made by our leaders BL Santosh and Sunil Jakhar thanking SOI can in no way be linked to our strategy for the state election, he said
Making it clear that yesterday’s victory of ABVP in the Panjab University students’ council election, with the support of the Students Organisation of India (SOI), in no way indicated that BJP could be moving towards an alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) ahead of the forthcoming Punjab Assembly election, the party’s new Punjab in-charge, Satish Poonia, said on Tuesday that BJP would contest all 117 Assembly seats in the state on its own.
Poonia, who was on his maiden visit to Punjab on Tuesday, held marathon meetings with district- and state-level office-bearers at Lions Club in the city. All 36 district presidents of BJP in the state attended the meeting, along with senior functionaries, including state president Kewal Singh Dhillon, national vice-president Manpreet Badal, general secretary (organisation) Manthri Srinivasulu and senior leader OP Dhankar.
Poonia said, “The student election and the statements made by our leaders BL Santosh and Sunil Jakhar thanking SOI can in no way be linked to our strategy for the state election. The decision was taken solely to ensure the victory of our ABVP candidate.”
Asked whether he believed that a similar alliance could boost BJP’s prospects in Punjab, he said, “We do not think it is required. We are capable of contesting on our own.”
On the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) protests across the state against three BJP MPs for offering condolences at the residence of former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar following his death, BJP state president Dhillon said, “AAP knows that its term is ending and has therefore started resorting to protests. AAP is also not giving dearness allowance (DA) to employees, which has led to protests. People from all sections of society are unhappy with the government. We all know that our national president, Nitin Nabin, has already expressed concern over the matter and taken action against the three MPs.”
Taking a dig at the Punjab Congress over the SC commission’s order against Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Dhillon said, “We have already condemned Warring’s statement and hope that action will be taken against him in accordance with the law.”
Poonia and Dhillon also held meetings to discuss the implementation of ‘Seva Sankalp Abhiyan’ across the state. OP Dhankar highlighted the key objectives and roadmap of the campaign, saying that the month-long initiative would be conducted from September 17, the Prime Minister’s birthday, to October 17.
He said the initiatives would include social-service activities such as blood donation camps, free health check-ups, cleanliness drives and plantation drives. “Programmes such as ‘Youth Connect’ would be organised to engage young people in social service. Camps would be organised at the block and district levels to help eligible beneficiaries who have been left out obtain cards and access government services at their doorstep,” he added.
