Amid speculation over a possible revival of the SAD-BJP alliance ahead of the 2027 assembly elections, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday said the BJP would never accept the role of a “younger brother” (junior partner), asserting that the saffron party is the country’s as well as the world’s largest party.
Puri’s remarks came days after Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal brushed aside speculation about the possible alliance with the BJP, saying that his focus was on strengthening his party.
Several BJP leaders, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, have been firm in contesting in all 117 assembly seats alone.
“Presently, the BJP is the largest political party in India and in the world. If somebody thinks that you can make us a younger brother by entering into an alliance, it will not happen,” Puri told reporters in Ludhiana.
At a separate event in Amritsar, when Union Minister Manohar Lal was asked about the SAD alliance rumours, he replied, “It is a policy matter, our party’s central leadership will sit and decide what strategy is to be formed. And strategy is the only issue which cannot be disclosed before it is finalised.” Asked if the BJP is capable of fighting all the 117 assembly seats on its own, Lal recalled the party’s electoral success in West Bengal, where it had fought independently and won 207 seats.
“In Haryana, too, we fought on our own in 2014, and we got the majority,” the minister said.
“To think that we cannot get the majority by fighting on our own, that is not the reason. But what will be in the country’s and state’s interests, that will be decided by our party’s central leadership,” he added.
The Shiromani Akali Dal parted ways with the National Democratic Alliance in September 2020 over the three contentious farm laws, which were later repealed.
In the 2022 assembly polls, the BJP won two seats while the SAD suffered its worst-ever electoral performance, winning just three seats.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
