The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has formed an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for the Punjab Assembly elections in 2022 after breaking ties with BJP last year over the Centre's contentious farm bills, sources say. The details of the alliance will be announced later today.
With the new alliance, the Sukhbir Badal-led party aims to fill the gap in several seats after its split with the BJP in September last year, sources say.
The Akali Dal and BSP are joining hands 27 years after the 1996 Lok Sabha elections when their alliance had bagged 11 out of 13 seats in Punjab. The Mayawati-led BSP had then won all three seats it had contested while the Akali Dal won eight out of 10 seats.
Sukhbir Badal is said to be behind the new alliance who announced last week that his party is open to tie-ups barring the Congress, BJP and the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
"We cannot align with these parties. We will form alliances and we are open to others. No chance to go with BJP at all," he had said last week.
The BSP has a considerable hold over the 31 per cent Dalit votes in the state. The concentration of these votes in 23 seats of the Doaba region is more significant. Dalits constitute almost 40 per cent of the population in Punjab.
The BSP is likely to contest from 18-20 seats the Akali Dal earlier offered BJP during its alliance with the ruling party, sources say. The Akali Dal was the oldest ally of the BJP.
AdvertisementIn the 2017 Assembly elections, the Akali Dal's vote share dipped to 25.2 per cent from 37.09 per cent in the 2007 assembly polls.
The BSP, which has been fighting elections solo in the state, got a 4.13 per cent vote share in 2007 that dropped to 1.5 per cent in 2017.
AdvertisementThe AAP, which emerged as a major force in the 2017 assembly polls, got 23.7 per cent of the votes while the BJP's vote share went down from 8.28 per cent in 2007 to 5.4 per cent in 2017.
