BJP expanding base, no truck with SAD, says Puri

Aditi Tandon

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New Delhi, June 10

The BJP on Saturday denied immediate possibilities of a reunion with old ally Shiromani Akali Dal and reiterated its call to the Akalis to join the saffron outfit.

Amid a buzz that the BJP could be engaging former allies to rebuild the erstwhile National Democratic Alliance, of which the SAD was a crucial component, senior party leader and Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Puri said, “I am not in the remarrying category as far as the Akali Dal is concerned.”

Rural pockets seeing party presence

A pan-India party, which is growing nationally, has now begun to appear in areas where it was conspicuous by its absence in Punjab, including in rural areas. Hardeep Puri, Union Housing & Urban Affairs Minister

Answering a question from The Tribune on whether the BJP and the SAD could contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in alliance, Puri said, “That is a decision for the party to take but an understanding between the two parties can mean a lot of things. Many good people from the Akali Dal have already come over to our side and we have worked with some of them in Jalandhar. Many people from the Akali Dal can come and join the BJP.”

Puri, active in the Punjab BJP, said the party might extend invitations to erstwhile NDA partners in case 25 years of the NDA were celebrated (the NDA was formed in 1998), but that did not automatically mean a marriage with all former allies.

The senior minister, who was in-charge of 60 BJP booths during the recent Jalandhar byelection, which AAP won handsomely, said the Jalandhar result should not be read simplistically. Some political observers are arguing that the BJP and SAD votes put together could match AAP in the Lok Sabha bypoll.

Meanwhile, privately, top BJP sources said while some previous NDA partners could be engaged, some were “impossible to engage”. They did not, however, define who fitted in what category.

Sources, however, said alliance talks were dynamic and nothing could be “confirmed or denied yet”.