Politics of alliance is not just about convenience, it is also about friendship. Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal demonstrated it amply in the Haryana Assembly election when he jilted NDA partner BJP and joined hands with his age-old friend, former Haryana chief minister Om Parkash Chautala.
In turn, Chautala offered the Akali Dal two Sikh-dominated Assembly seats, Ambala city and Kalanwali (Sirsa), to contest in Haryana. This is the first time the Akali Dal will contest the election in Haryana on its symbol.
An astute election campaigner that Badal is, he has directed party workers from nine districts in Punjab to throng Ambala, where his political adviser, DS Cheema, is camping to mobilise support for the party nominee.
Also, Akali workers from as many as 12 districts have been pressed into service in Kalanwali, where veteran Akali leader Baldev Singh Bhunder and others are managing the campaign.
Both Badal and his son Sukhbir, who is a deputy chief minister and president of the Akali Dal, have been shuttling between the two constituencies, mustering support for the Akali Dal.
The Akali Dal’s foray into Haryana politics is ascribed to the Congress trying to woo Sikhs by promising them a separate SGPC in Haryana. Observers feel Badal has jumped into the fray — even at the cost of spurning the BJP — to prevent the Sikhs from going into the Congress fold.
In his public speeches, Badal has been going overboard to explain to the masses that he had not parted ways with the BJP for good and that it was only a state-level political arrangement. He, however, wished that the BJP had forged an alliance with the Indian National Lok Dal.
On Friday, Badal addressed five election meetings in Ambala, while Sukhbir camped in Kalanwali.
The Akali Dal has fielded Charanjeet Kaur, wife of former INLD legislator Jasbir Singh Malaur. She takes on former union minister Venod Sharma, who was elected from Ambala in 2005 on the Congress ticket.
