CHANDIGARH: BJP is caught in a dilemma in Punjab over whether to go it alone in the 2017 Assembly elections or sustain its alliance with SAD that has been strained since the 2014 Lok Sabha polls when the partners put up a below-par performance.

BJP leaders and cadres in Punjab feel that even after being an active coalition partner of the government with four Cabinet ministers, it has a negligible role in decision-making. BJP cadres have been working for the past one year in rural Punjab to consolidate the party’s position. This had set off alarm bells in SAD as the leadership perceived it as an attempt to eat into the party’s votes.

In a recent meeting to get feedback, the central leadership was surprised when the core group members and district leaders told the high command representatives that the saffron party had slipped to number four in state politics. If the trend continues, the party will be a mere spectator in a likely triangular contest in the Assembly polls between Akalis, Congress and AAP. The leadership was told the alliance with the Akalis had not benefitted BJP in any manner whatsoever.

“A section of BJP cadres in Punjab has expressed its viewpoint that the party should contest elections on its own. Ultimately, it is up to the BJP’s central leadership to take a call,” said Punjab BJP unit president Kamal Sharma.

The state leadership has met representatives of the BJP high command thrice in the last few days. Earlier, Prabhat Jha, who is in charge of party affairs, and national general secretary (organisation) Ram Lal had one-to-one meetings with the state core group members. The core group had similar meetings with organisational secretary Dinesh Kumar.

During the Akali Dal’s Sadbhavna rally in Moga last month, Sharma did not attend, while saffron party leaders and workers skipped a rally in Tarn Taran. The presence of party workers was not encouraging despite BJP’s promise to support SAD rallies. Meanwhile, BJP’s Amritsar (East) MLA and Chief Parliamentary Secretary Navjot Kaur Sidhu has said that she and her cricketer-turned-politician husband Navjot Sidhu would back out if the party contests the elections in alliance with SAD. She did not rule out the possibility of the husband-wife duo joining AAP.

BJP ministers Madan Mohan Mittal and Anil Joshi have also expressed their differences with the Akali leadership.

BJP is confused over whether to go solo in the 2017 Punjab Assembly polls or sustain its alliance with SAD