‘Will stick to stand on CAA’, say Akalis after BJP dumps them for Delhi polls
Mangalore Today News Network
New Delhi, Jan 20, 2020: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has said its stand on the Citizenship Amendment Act or CAA is what upset the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and it decided to not have an alliance for Delhi Assembly elections.
“BJP was upset with us for our opposition to citizenship amendment act passed by the NDA government. But SAD has its own stand and we will stick to it. Senior leaders of our party are meeting in Delhi to draw out a strategy,” said SAD spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema, Hindustan Times reported.
A senior BJP leader told Hindustan Times that the BJP will not be fighting the elections in Delhi SAD, its long standing alliance partner.
There are approximately 10 lakh Sikh voters in the national capital and according to political estimates, they impact the outcome in 10 out of 70 assembly seats, mostly in the West Delhi area.
Other than the SAD, the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), which is one of their newest allies in Haryana, will also not be fighting with the BJP in the upcoming elections. While deputy chief minister and JJP leader Dushyant Chautala was unavailable for comment, the SAD’s Delhi leader MS Sirsa said, “If the BJP doesn’t want to take along the minorities, then it is up to them. They are the senior partners and so we have to go by their wishes,” he said.
While it is unclear if the party’s top leadership okayed this decision, HT has learnt that the call was taken by the election team in Delhi. This is led by Union minister Prakash Javdekar and also includes BJP national vice president Shyam Jaju and party’s national secretary Tarun Chugh.
In the recent past, the BJP and the Akalis have been slightly out of sync with SAD leader Sukhbir Badal raising concerns about the CAA. In a recent interview, he told HT, “My party’s view is that the CAA should mention minorities instead of naming religious communities (whose citizenship will be fast-tracked under the new law). Nobody in the country should feel that they have been omitted or left out.”
The news comes on a day when the BJP has managed to work out deals with two of their partners in Delhi - the Janata Dal (United) and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), which are also important alliance partners in Bihar which goes to polls later this year.