Parting ways with BJP was right decision: Harsimrat

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, May 30

“Nau-maas da saath hai, eh nahin chutda (like nail and skin, inseparable)” — that is how late Akali patriarch and former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal used to describe relations between Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP. Now, more than three years after the former allies snapped ties and a year after the former CM’s death, the two parties are contesting the elections alone, venturing into a territory unchartered for nearly three decades.

It was the right decision to part ways with the BJP. They have not just been against farmers, but have also refused to relent on key Panthic issues. As a Panthic and regional party, the unholy alliance was unacceptable to us. — Harsimrat Kaur Badal, SAD’s Bathinda candidate

As the campaigning for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections draws to a close, all eyes are on the “after-effects” of SAD and BJP going their separate ways. Under the microscope is the Badal family borough of Bathinda, where the “First Lady” of Akali Dal, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, is defending her seat against another Akali bahu and BJP candidate, Parampal Kaur Sidhu; former Akali MLA and Congress candidate Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu; former Akali leader Lakha Sidhana; and Punjab Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian of AAP.

Many political observers believe that if the two former allies had reunited and entered into an alliance, they would have won a majority of the 13 LS seats in the border state. However, the Badal bahu disagrees.

“It was the right decision to part ways with the BJP. They have not just been against farmers, but have also refused to relent on key Panthic issues. As a Panthic and regional party, the unholy alliance was unacceptable to us,” she tells The Tribune.

After holding rallies at Sardulgarh, Budhalada and Mansa, Harsimrat says that not only was the BJP ignoring farmers and Panthic issues, it was also meddling in the affairs of Sikh religious institutions.

“They started meddling in the affairs of Patna Sahib Gurdwara, Nanded Sahib Gurdwara, DSGMC and HSGPC. Even the British and the Congress party had desisted from doing this. I would say that there is no going back now,” she says.

Interestingly, her brother-in-law and BJP leader Manpreet Singh Badal has been campaigning for the saffron party at Amritsar, Ferozepur, Faridkot, Patiala and Ludhiana, but has not held any poll event in Bathinda.

Meanwhile, the contest in Bathinda is turning out to be quite nerve-biting. On one hand is the Akali Dal candidate and the force of its cadres, and on the other is the “very approachable and humble Khuddian”, whose party, AAP, has given 300 units of free power to domestic consumers. CM Bhagwant Mann has openly challenged the Badals with his satirical “Kikli”, saying “Seat phas gayi Bathinde ton”.

Sources in the Akali Dal, however, say that though each election is “difficult and different”, they have “fortified” this particular seat. Even as three former Akali lieutenants — Sarup Chand Singla, Jagdeep Nakai and Darshan Singh Kotfatta — have jumped the ship and are working against Harsimrat, her close relatives, including Sunny Brar and other key aides, are securing the party’s strongholds for her.

Harsimrat says her win would foil attempts by other parties to finish off SAD.

“Their purpose is to surround and defeat the Akali Dal in its bastion, and try and politically finish this historic party. I assure you, we will come out victorious, that too with a huge margin. I have worked diligently as Bathinda’s true representative, getting an AIIMS and central university here,” Harsimrat tells The Tribune, before signing off for a rally at Budhlada.