Chandigarh, June 16
The ongoing "cold war" between the BJP and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is now out in the open.

A day after senior BJP leader Balramji Das Tandon questioned Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's visit to Delhi to meet PM Narendra Modi without taking state BJP leaders along, the SAD today said: "Meeting the PM regarding state-related issues was the sole prerogative of the CM, who does not require anybody's permission for the purpose."

The alliance reportedly ran into rough weather when the two parties performed poorly in the LS polls. Both the allies have been taking potshots at each other for the "below expectation" performance.

Calling Tandon's statement an outburst, SAD general secretary Maheshinder Singh Grewal said: "No one can decide when and how the CM or Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal will meet the PM. They will continue to do so as and when required."

He said the SAD was an independent party and there was a certain decorum which needed to be maintained in all coalitions. "All divergent views should be first discussed in the SAD-BJP coordination committee meetings. Going to the press with one's personal views on critical issues does not solve any problem. Such actions only create mistrust among people about the two parties' relations when nothing of this sort actually exists," he said.

Grewal said the SAD was the only party that had always offered unconditional support to the BJP and Parkash Badal had even stood by it when it was treated as untouchable by all other mainstream parties. Grewal said: "Modi was the PM of the NDA government, of which the SAD is a trusted ally. All efforts should be made to strengthen Modi's hands at this juncture when the NDA had formed the government at the Centre after 10 years."

However, Tandon said he did not challenge the CM's prerogative to meet the PM but had said that it would have been better if he had taken BJP leaders along to meet Modi. "In fact, it would have been more appropriate if both the coalition partners had together thrashed out issues to be raised at a meeting with the PM. It would have enhanced the importance of the coalition government in Punjab," he said.

With 57 MLAs of its own, the SAD is slightly short of the majority in the now 117-member Vidhan Sabha. It is now dependent on the BJP that has 12 MLAs. However, the BJP, having majority in the Lok Sabha, is not dependent on the SAD in Parliament.