CHANDIGARH, December 29: The Akali Dal has staked claim to three Lok Sabha seats outside Punjab as its talks with the alliance partner Bharatiya Janata Party on the sharing of seats in the state remained inconclusive today.The BJP is likely to remain indifferent in case Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral decides to contest from Jalandhar on the Akali Dal offer. The strategy of the combine on the seats in Punjab and Chandigarh except Jalandhar would be to put up winning candidates. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and senior Akali leader and Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee chief Gurcharan Singh Tohra discussed the sharing of seats and the strategy with the BJP leaders led by Madan Lal Khurana here for more than an hour.
Talking to the media persons after the meeting, Khurana said Badal had sought from BJP a seat each in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan. While Badal had earlier said the Akali Dal would also like to contest one seat from Delhi, it was not discussed at today's meeting.
The
Akali Dal would favour a Sikh being put up from Ganganagar in Rajasthan in case former Union minister Buta Singh is the Congress candidate there. The party favours contesting from Kurukshetra in Haryana and a seat in Terai area of UP. Khurana said while Kurukshetra had been allocated to its alliance partner Haryana Vikas Party in that state, the proposal was under active consideration of the BJP.
He asserted the Akali Dal-BJP combine would contest all the 12 seats in Punjab and the lone Chandigarh seat jointly. The Akali Dal would adopt its own strategy for Jalandhar seat which has been offered to Gujral by the party.
He ruled out any dispute on the sharing of seats with the Akali Dal. The BJP has claimed five seat in the state won by the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress in the last election. These seats are Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Ferozepur, Phillaur and Hoshiarpur. Khurana asserted that even in these five seats, the criteria would be the winning candidate and not the party.
While Badal has already
offered Gurdaspur to Vajpayee, he urged Khurana at the meeting to contest from Amritsar which he politely declined.
Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
