Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has come up with a firm decision to contest all 117 seats in Punjab Assembly Elections 2022, said party general secretary Tarun Chugh. This decision comes after nearly two months when BJP's long term ally in Punjab Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) quitted the ally over the contentious farm laws.
Mr. Chugh has announced that the BJP will contest all 117 Assembly constituencies in the 2022 elections on its own, creating a major challenge for the CM Capt Amarinder Singh led Congress party in Punjab.
"BJP is strengthening its organization on a war footing to contest all 117 Assembly seats in Punjab," Mr. Chugh said.
Notably, in September, SAD voiced against the NDA following the enforcement of three new agriculture sector reform laws enacted-Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Service Act, 2020, and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
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Amid the ruckus, SAD MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal also resigned from the Union Cabinet.
Reiterating the facts about the alliance, BJP-SAD joined their hands in 1992. The parties agreed on a seat-sharing formula, the SAD being the senior partner used to contest on around 94 seats and the BJP on 23. For the 13 seats of Lok Sabha, SAD used to field candidates in 10 constituencies and the BJP on three.
In 2017 Assembly polls, Congress won an absolute majority in the state by winning 77 seats and ousted the SAD-BJP government after 10 years. Further, in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the old alliance of SAD-BJP performed poorly as they won 2-2 seats while Congress bagged 8 seats in Punjab.