Chandigarh, January 7
The Punjab BJP today won a major victory in its war of attrition with its SAD coalition partner on the power hike rollback issue with the latter assenting to a complete withdrawal of the hike as far as the domestic sector is concerned and a 50 per cent withdrawal for the commercial and industrial sectors.

However, this is a one-time adjustment as of now with the rollback for the domestic sector being for a period of one year and that for the commercial and industrial sectors being for six months. The adjustments would be made in bills distributed to consumers from April 1 this year.

The Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) had affected an average 12 per cent hike in power charges in September last year with retrospective effect from April 2009. The Board had subsequently started billing consumers for the entire period in instalments along with their current bills.

Though an official release here said the withdrawal had been ordered to give relief to the common man in view of the general economic slowdown, the truth is that the SAD fought tooth and nail till the last minute to avoid the rollback. However, a late night walkout from a meeting by the BJP and a threat of withdrawal of support to the government, forced the SAD to fall in line.

There was hectic political activity in Delhi yesterday with the first meeting between Arun Jaitely, Balbir Punj and Ram Lal from the BJP national leadership and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal from the SAD being held at the Kapurthala House in the morning. A second meeting was held in the evening, as the first one remained inconclusive.

The second meeting witnessed the SAD remaining firm on not allowing the rollback. Following this, the state BJP leadership was called and told about the outcome by its central leaders. The state BJP leaders, including Balramji Dass Tandon, Manoranjan Kalia, Rajinder Bhandari, Madan Mohan Mittal and Navjot Singh Sidhu did not take kindly to the decision and walked out in a huff. They also threatened to withdraw support from the government and proceeded to the Punjab Bhawan.

The walk out apparently had its effect with sources saying Sukhbir Badal subsequently agreed to the withdrawal in talks with the BJP national leadership. Following this the BJP leadership held another meeting at the residence of BJP Organising Secretary Ram Lal on 9 Ashoka Road past 11 p.m. last night. BJP national President Nitin Gadkari also attended the meeting in which the agreement as well as other irritants in the State BJP’s relationship with the SAD were discussed in detail.