Alliance talks with AAP off, SAD (Taksali) to go it alone

LUDHIANA: Senior Shiromani Akali Dal (Taksali) leader Sewa Singh Sekhwan on Sunday said the talks of forming an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab were off and they will contest the Lok Sabha elections alone.

Sekhwan, who was in Ludhiana to welcome All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) state president Tajinder Singh Sandhu into the party fold, said a meeting between the two parties to be held on Sunday was called off.

The ongoing talks between the two parties did not make much headway as neither of them was willing to give up the Anandpur Sahib seat. AAP and the Akali Dal breakaway faction have declared Narinder Singh Shergill and former assembly deputy speaker Bir Devinder Singh as their candidates from the segment.

Party spokesperson Karnail Singh Peer Mohammed said AAP’s likely alliance with the Congress in Delhi and Haryana was also a reason behind the failure of talks.

“It is unfortunate that Punjab Democratic Alliance (PDA) and AAP leaders have refused to have a tie-up because of their egos. We have not yet decided as on how many seats we will field candidates from. A decision on this will be taken in our next meeting. We may have a rethink on this if AAP does not have a tie-up with the Congress anywhere,” said Sekhwan. When contacted, leader of opposition and AAP MLA Harpal Cheema said besides Anandpur Sahib seat issue, another reason behind their talks not yielding anything fruitful was that the taksalis want to see Modi as prime minister again and this is not acceptable to them.

Earlier, the talks of alliance between the SAD (Taksali) and PDA also came to an end following a tussle over the Anandpur Sahib seat with the front fielding Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate from the segment.

Sekhwan said they approached Dakha MLA HS Phoolka to join them and fight from any seat in Punjab but he refused the offer saying that he wanted to stay away from politics and instead wanted to focus on freeing the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) from the clutches of the Badal family.

› We may have a rethink on this if AAP does not have a tie-up with the Congress anywhere

SEWA SINGH SEKHWAN, SAD (Taksali) leader