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Prime Minister Modi visited Akali Dal's office in Chandigarh to express his grief to the Badal family. (File) There is no chance of the BJP re-entering an alliance with Shiromani Akali Dal and it will contest all elections in Punjab on its own, the head of the party's state unit Ashwani Sharma said on Saturday. He added that the tribute paid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP leadership to Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Patriarch Parkash Singh Badal, who died on Tuesday, should not be linked to politics.
Prime Minister Modi visited the SAD office in Chandigarh to express his grief to the Badal family on the passing of the former five times Punjab head of government.
BJP leader JP Nadda, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, top leader Tarun Chugh and other party figures visited Badal village in Muktsar on Thursday to pay their respects.
Sharma, in a statement on Saturday, said: "The BJP will contest all elections on its own and win with a landslide. And (will not) forge an alliance with SAD at all costs."
He said that an article written by PM Modi about Mr. Badal or the PM and BJP leaders visiting Punjab to pay tribute to the former PM should not be linked to politics.
“It was nothing more than a tribute to former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal,” Sharma said in the statement.
Prime Minister Modi, in an article in a media section, paid a glowing tribute to Mr. Badal. He added that he had lost a father figure, someone who had guided him for decades, with Badal's death.
The SAD cut ties with the BJP over the now withdrawn Farm Laws in 2020. It had been part of the National Democratic Alliance since 1997, having formed a pre-election alliance with the BJP ahead of the Assembly elections in Punjab that year. .
Mr Sharma said on Saturday that the BJP is receiving great support from the villages, which makes them happy and surprised.
The BJP will fight the upcoming elections alone, including the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, he claimed.
Punjabis have now understood that BJP is the only party that can make Punjab prosperous by maintaining peace and brotherhood, he said.
The BJP does what it says, Sharma added.
Criticizing the AAP government in Punjab, Sharma said all sections of society were fed up with the Bhagwant Mann-led dispensation and would vote for the BJP to teach it a lesson.
