CHANDIGARH, Punjab—SAD-BJP ties seem to be worsening day by day. After going alone for state assembly elections in Haryana and Maharashtra by ending alliances with other parties, the BJP is planning to contest the state assembly elections in 2017 alone in Punjab.
As per information availed by various sources, senior leaders of Punjab BJP have discussed the possibility of the party contesting the Assembly elections on its own in 2017, instead of tying up with the Shiromani Akali Dal Badal.
A meeting was held in Karnal wherein the issue was discussed, reported by The Tribune.
Though senior BJP leader Tarun Chugh has reportedly denied having given any call to the workers to be ready for contesting the Punjab Assembly elections alone in 2017, sources insist he and other leaders wanted the momentum gained in Haryana to be carried over to Punjab.
Chugh reportedly raised the slogan at the meeting as “Haryana to ek jhanki hai, Punjab abhi baki hai”. As per Tribune’s story, Chug told workers, “We are contesting independently in Haryana and Maharashtra, now we should also get ready to contest elections independently in Punjab”.
On the other hand, Chugh clarified that he was talking about Assembly elections in Bihar and Jharkhand. He claimed he was simply propagating PM Narendra Modi’s idea of rooting out the Congress from the country.
However, a press note about the meeting quoted him saying the results of the Haryana Assembly elections would have far-reaching consequences on the political situation in northern states.
Leaders of the Punjab BJP who attended the meeting included state general secretaries Rakesh Rathore and Jagtar Singh Saini, state vice-president Sarbjit Kaur Bath, state secretaries Archana Dutt and Subhash Sharma, minister Anil Joshi, CPS KD Bhandari, Vice-Chairman (Cabinet rank) Punjab State Planning Board, Chairman Water and Sewerage Board Punjab Vinod Sharma, Chairman of the Khadi Board Harjit Singh Grewal, Chairman of the District Planning Board Hoshiarpur Jawahar Khurana, MP Vijay Sampla, MLA Ashwani Sharma, former Cabinet minister Arunesh Shakar, ex-CPS Raj Khurana, and ex-MP Gurcharan Kaur.
