Akalis, BJP bury the hatchet

The ruling Akali Dal in Punjab and the Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appear to have resolved the logjam that was created with the SAD insisting to contest the ensuing Delhi Assembly elections on its own party symbol.

Although a formal announcement is awaited, sources in the party said it has been nearly decided that the SAD candidates will fight on its party symbol in some Assembly constituencies and on BJP’s in others.

Till now, the SAD had been adamant on its stand to contest the polls on its own symbol. However, with the BJP high command putting its foot down, fearing defeat on some seats, a middle path was worked out after a series of meeting with central BJP leaders.

MP and SAD Secretary General Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, who flew to New Delhi this afternoon, is expected to meet senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley later this evening to formalise the agreement. This will be the first time that the SAD (Badal) will contest the Delhi elections on its party symbol, for which it has already requested the Election Commission of India.

Akali candidates contested on four seats during the last Delhi Vidhan Sabha elections on BJP symbol and lost. This time, the Akali Dal, which has the BJP as its ally in Punjab, had demanded 15 seats. Notably, the Assembly has 70 segments. The demand was cut to size by the BJP high command and the Akali Dal is now unlikely to contest on more than five seats.

Sources said the Akali Dal was almost sure to get Adarsh Nagar, Rajouri Garden and Shahdra seats, besides a couple of other constituencies. On the rationale behind the “partial” use of its party symbol, the senior SAD leader said the BJP feared losing some seats, where other parties’ candidates were expected to give a tough fight to Akalis. “They were of the opinion that the impact could be negated by using the lotus symbol instead of the SAD symbol on those seats,” a SAD leader said.

Sources said Ravinder Khurana from Adarsh Nagar, Shanti from Shahdra and Avtar Singh Hit from Rajouri Garden were being considered frontrunners for the tickets.