Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president JP Nadda on Wednesday announced that the Shiromani Akali Dal will support the saffron party in the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections. The announcement came after Nadda's meeting with SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal in Delhi.
SAD had earlier decided not to contest the Delhi Assembly polls over differences with BJP over the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Delhi: BJP President Jagat Prakash Nadda meets Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal over #DelhiElections. SAD had earlier decided not to contest the election in Delhi, over their differences with BJP regarding their stand on Citizenship Amendment Act. pic.twitter.com/dT3i5qmBDy
— ANI (@ANI) January 29, 2020
Addressing a joint press conference with Badal, Nadda hailed the party as an old and strong ally and thanked the party for its support. Badal asserted that their alliance is not merely about politics but also about a bond of sentiments, adding that "misunderstandings" with the saffron party had been sorted.
Claiming that his party had never broken alliance with the BJP, Badal said that SAD had been supporting the CAA from the beginning. "We went to Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah for granting citizenship to Sikhs who have been subjected to persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan," ANI quoted Badal as saying.
SAD Chief SS Badal: We never broke the alliance. We just decided to contest the election separately. We've been supporting CAA from the beginning. We went to Rajnath Singh&Amit Shah for granting citizenship for Sikhs who have been subjected to persecution in Pak, Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/w1hCxmPry4
— ANI (@ANI) January 29, 2020
However, the party had earlier claimed that it is of the" firm stand that Muslims cannot be left out of the CAA". Party leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa had also said that his party is "strongly" against the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Akali Dal's decision to not contest the polls had triggered concerns in the BJP that it may alienate a section of Sikh voters.
With inputs from agencies
January 29, 2020 at 06:20PM
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