Delhi defeat, Sirsa meets Badal, Harsimrat

Chandigarh, The recent thaw in SAD-BJP ties in Punjab was shortlived. The rout faced by the BJP in the Delhi Assembly elections and the defeat of all four Akali candidates in Delhi has led to a fresh war of words between the two alliance partners.If yesterday Akali leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa, who lost the Rajouri Garden seat, spoke against the “arrogance” of BJP leaders, BJP’s state Local Bodies Minister Anil Joshi today raised a banner of revolt against the Akalis, accusing them of trying to crush the BJP.Talking to The Tribune today, Sirsa said the BJP had been defeated in Delhi because of polarisation of votes after the “Ramzaade vs haraamzade” remark by Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti and the last-minute decision to seek the support of Dera Sacha Sauda chief.“There was a disconnect between the BJP leadership and the candidates in the fray. The candidates were aware of the ground reality and their views should have been sought by the BJP high command before arriving at any decision,” he said.He was referring to the BJP decisions to take the support of Dera Sacha Sauda and to field Kiran Bedi as CM candidate.“In my own constituency of Rajouri Garden, the SAD vote share has improved. But the Congress vote share of more than 60 per cent went in favour of AAP,” he said.Sirsa held a meeting with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal in Delhi this evening and discussed the reasons for the party’s defeat.Even as SAD leaders spoke about the BJP “arrogance”, they preferred to remain mum on the Tarn Taran clash yesterday.Minister Anil Joshi’s brother Raja Joshi was attacked during the clash.With the municipal elections round the corner, clashes between SAD and BJP workers in different parts of the state are becoming frequent.What is surprising is that the leadership of the two parties seems unwilling to ask its cadres to be more accommodating.The municipal elections will test the strength of the Akali-BJP alliance, especially when the two parties are finding it difficult to agree on seat-sharing.