No alliance with BJP for 2024 Lok Sabha elections, says SAD

New Delhi: The Shiromani Akali Dal, an erstwhile member of NDA, has “taken a view to have no coalition with BJP” for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, senior SAD leader Naresh Gujral said.
Gujral said the last two speeches in Lok Sabha by SAD member Harsimranjit Kaur - during the no-confidence motion and women’s reservation bill - were indications that SAD will not partner with BJP. Elaborating on the decision to have “no alliance” with BJP, he said, “SAD is a regional party. Our focus is Punjab. We should follow the Karunanidhi model... each time his (late DMK chief) party was beaten, he went back to the ground to consolidate the party’s position in the state.
“Whether we get 4 or 5 seats in Lok Sabha is immaterial to us. We have to be in Punjab, ready for the next elections. INDIA alliance of parties gives us a huge advantage,” said Gujral, adding that “if Congress and AAP tie-up in Punjab, SAD will emerge as the big force with its cadres and leaders on the ground. Even during the recent floods in the state, the only people on the ground were SAD leaders”.
Talking of SAD’s alliance with BJP, which snapped in September 2020 in the wake of the farmers’ stir against the now scrapped three farm laws, Gujral said late SAD chief Parkash Singh Badal’s main focus was Hindu-Sikh unity in Punjab that had been damaged in 1984. “This unity is the life blood of Punjab. That was behind this alliance. But BJP does not have the same complexion today. Sikhs are followers of the Gurus who believed in tolerance, compassion, equality, respect for all religions, apart from charity,” he said.