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Chandigarh, Apprehensive of the attitude of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the aftermath of the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly poll results despite assurance by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of smooth sailing, the top Akali Dal leadership has started the poaching game again to have some Congress MLAs in its net.
Jaitley had earlier this week got in touch with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to convey after consulting his party President Amit Shah that the alliance between the Akali Dal and the BJP would continue. This reportedly followed the initiative taken by Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal who had sought assurance from the BJP leaders as former Amritsar MP Navjot Singh Sidhu triggered carpet bombing against the Badals from the Haryana election stage. It was a no-holds-barred attack during which he levelled the allegations of open loot in Punjab. It may be mentioned that the Akali Dal had supported the Indian National Lok Dal in Haryana citing family ties with its supremo Om Parkash Chautala who is in jail after his conviction in a corruption case.
Even before Sidhu was given the green signal by the BJP to target Badals, sources had maintained that in case the party succeeded in winning about 30 seats in Haryana, the party might withdraw its ministers from the Badal cabinet and extend conditional support from outside. Presently, the BJP leadership in Punjab has failed to effectively intervene in the governance with all the important decisions being taken by the senior alliance partner. The party would be in a better position to dictate from outside. What had given rise to the apprehensions in the mind of the Akali leadership was the search by the BJP of a Sikh face to head the party in Punjab. The name that the party had zeroed in was a staunch opponent of the Badals in the Punjab political spectrum.
The Akali Dal has 58 MLAs in a House of 117 and thus is one short of majority. Earlier, the Akali Dal was in comfort zone following the support extended by two independent MLAs from Ludhiana, Simarjit Singh Bains and Balwinder Singh Bains but this arrangement ended during Lok Sabha elections. The Akali Dal had earlier won over two Congress MLA, Joginder Pal Jain from Moga and Jit Mohinder Singh Sidhu from Talwandi Sabo. They resigned and got re-elected on the Akali Dal ticket. Deputy Chief Minister and Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal is learnt to be keen to repeat that exercise. About half a dozen Congress MLAs were reported to be in touch with him before the Lok Sabha elections.
Sources in the Congress maintain that feelers had once again been received by some party MLAs but nothing concrete has emerged so far.
The only alliance partner of the BJP at the national level is the Akali Dal after Shiv Sena broke away in Maharashtra. The BJP is in majority at its own in the Lok Sabha and under the given situation, the only advantage of the Akali Dal to the BJP is that it can claim the support of at least one dominant minority. The BJP otherwise is considered to be anti-minority although the party had a clean record at the national level when Atal Behari Vajpayee headed the NDA government. The BJP can afford to charter independent course in Punjab with the Congress still in the process of finding its moorings after tasting defeat one after another. Moreover, factionalism in the party is too deep. It is the BJP that can occupy the space that is being vacated by the Congress which had traditional support base among the Hindus and dalits. With Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister, the shift in this traditional support base of the Congress towards BJP is not ruled out. It is to be seen as to what extent the BJP is prepared to take the risk in Punjab. The situation would become clear in case the party succeeds in having an inspiring Sikh face as its head.
