Amritsar: BJP leaders in Punjab are not happy with electoral alliance with the Prakash Singh Badal-led Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and wanted to end in the run-up to the 2017 state assembly polls. The senior leaders in Punjab reportedly told party president Amit Shah to seriously consider snapping ties with SAD.
Sources in the BJP state unit said that this view was conveyed to Shah during a meeting in New Delhi. They were reportedly of the unanimous view that the BJP needs to end its "marriage" with the SAD and project itself as a party with a clean image and should let the SAD take full blame and responsibility for the problems that the state was experiencing.
Shah is reportedly scheduled to meet Punjab Deputy Chief Minister and SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal later. Shah has to also decide the name of the state president under whom the party would contest the 2017 assembly elections. The term of present state party chief Kamal Sharma has already expired and experts opine that the name of the next state party president would signal which way the BJP is headed.
The other names doing the rounds for state party chief are Tarun Chugh and Ashwani Sharma, but if the party is keen on projecting a Sikh face, then Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina, the vice president of the state unit, could be their choice, as the BJP would like to show their secular face and at the same time garner the votes of the Jat Sikh community, which is dominant in the rural areas of Punjab.
Former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu has also reportedly put his hat in the race for state party president, but some central BJP leaders seem to be wary of endorsing him because of his hit and run' style of politics. "Sidhu might have a following, but he is difficult to control and he might not follow the dictates of the high command," said a senior leader.
