BJP CHIEF SHAH MEETS BADAL, DISCUSSES LS ELECTION PLAN

BJP president Amit Shah on Thursday met Akali patriarch Parkash Singh Badal and other leaders of the Shiromani Akali Dal to discuss the strategy for the 2019 parliamentary polls.

After the meeting, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal said that his party is a permanent ally of the BJP and the NDA and urged other alliance partners also to stand together ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Sources said Akali leaders also raised farmers’ issues at the meeting.

BJP president on Thursday Amit Shah held a meeting with the SAD leadership at the house of Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal. At least 25 leaders from both the SAD and Punjab unit of the BJP were present at the meeting.

The main agenda at the meeting was the alliance partners’ strategy for the 2019 general elections. The meeting was been arranged on the request of Mr Shah, who is trying to reach out to the alliance partners under the BJPled National Democratic Alliance. The SAD is expected to raise the issue of wooing farmers.

While SAD top brass, including Parkash Singh Badal and president Sukhbir Singh Badal, rolled out a red carpet for Mr Shah, some of its senior leaders raised the issue of BJP central leadership ignoring the Akali Dal all these years.

After the meeting with the Mr Shah, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal called upon the NDA allies to contest the elections together. “Shiromani Akali Dal is a permanent ally of the NDA. There’s no conflict between us. I would like to appeal to all our allies that this is time to fight, the battle’s in six months. We should get together and cast away all our differences,” Sukhbir Singh Badal said..

Earlier, pitching for strengthening the NDA in a “war- like situation”, the SAD chief said all alliance partners must settle their differences to ensure victory in the general elections next year. According to Mr Badal, the BJP and the SAD are “natural allies”.