Having recently forged an alliance with the BJP in Haryana, the Shiromani Akali Dal on Thursday said the decision on number of Seats it will contest in the forthcoming Assembly elections in the State will be taken at an appropriate time.
Amid reports that the SAD was seeking a good chunk of Seats to contest the Haryana Assembly polls, which are due in October, Party’s senior leader and in-charge for State affairs Balwinder Singh Bhunder said, “The decision on number of Seats we will contest will be taken at an appropriate time when we will sit together with our ally.”
Senior SAD leader Prof. Prem Singh Chandumajra had in Delhi on Wednesday said his Party was in a position to win 30 Seats in the 90-member Haryana Assembly or make those contesting these Seats win.
“There are 30 Seats which we can win or make those contesting these Seats win,” he had told reporters.
Mr. Bhunder clarified that the SAD has not put any demand before the BJP on number of Seats it wants to contest in the State.
“The number is not an issue. All these things can be sorted out later when we sit together and discuss. But the SAD holds sway on number of Seats in Haryana and the question now is how our ally will use it to reap the maximum benefit,” he told PTI over phone.
Shortly before the Lok Sabha polls, the SAD had forged an alliance with the BJP in Haryana. It, however, had announced that it would not contest any of the 10 Lok Sabha Seats in the State and instead extend support to the saffron party.
Mr. Bhunder, also SAD’s national vice-president and a Rajya Sabha MP, said his Party decided to not contest any Lok Sabha Seat in the State as the BJP had already announced its candidates on some Seats.
After its prodigious performance of winning in all the 10 Lok Sabha constituencies in Haryana, the BJP has already drawn up a strategy to bag at least 75 Seats in the Assembly elections.
On the Seat-sharing issue with the SAD, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had recently said these things will be decided by the BJP’s parliamentary board at an appropriate time.
Earlier, the SAD had an alliance with the Indian National Lok Dal in Haryana.
The INLD severed its ties with the SAD four years ago over the latter’s opposition to the construction of the Sutlej-Yamuna link (SYL) canal, which was to carry the river water from Punjab to Haryana.