2024 Lok Sabha polls: Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Thursday refuted reports of a possible reunion with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), saying that they were just media speculations.
In an interaction with reporters, Badal asserted that SAD already has an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party, PTI reported. He said that his party will organise a programme against some decisions made by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab, led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
When asked about a possible tie-up between SAD and BJP, Badal said that the rumours were in the media and they are media speculations.
The SAD chief held a meeting with incharges and district presidents of the constituencies under his party. A day before, he had held a closer-door meeting with senior party leaders.
The idea of a SAD-BJP reunion was also refuted by BJP leader and ex-Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani, who maintained that the BJP would contest the elections on 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab alone. Rupani was in Amritsar with recently-appointed Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar.
The SAD pulled out of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and broke alliance with the BJP in November 2020 over the contentious now-repealed farm laws that led to intense protests in the state. Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring had earlier claimed that the act of walking out of the NDA was a 'drama' by the SAD and it never separated with the BJP.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had paid tributes to former Punjab CM and prominent Akali leader Prakash Singh Badal on June 24 during a rally in Chandigarh, causing a buzz over a possible SAD-BJP reunion for the 2024 polls.
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