BJP announces alliance with Amarinder, to issue joint manifesto

The Bharatiya Janata Party will contest the assembly polls in Punjab in alliance with Amarinder Singh's Punjab Lok Congress and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa's Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt), Union minister Gajendra Shekhawat said on Monday.

Both Singh and Dhindsa, a Rajya Sabha MP, met with the BJP top brass, including president J P Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, at the latter's residence in New Delhi to chalk out a strategy for the polls.

It was decided at the meeting that the BJP, Singh's party and Dhindsa's party will jointly contest the polls in Punjab.

Addressing the media after the meeting, Shekhawat said, "Today, it is being officially announced that the BJP, Amarinder Singh's party and Dhindsa's party will jointly contest the upcoming assembly polls in Punjab."

Shekhawat, the BJP's poll in-charge for Punjab, said to finalise the seat sharing agreement, a joint committee will be formed comprising two leaders from each party.

He also announced that the three-party alliance will come up with a joint manifesto. 

Sources in the BJP said they see the elections in Punjab becoming a five-cornered fight as various farmer outfits may enter the fray, besides the Congress, the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Aam Aadmi Party.

Singh formed his own party, the Punjab Lok Congress, days after he resigned as the chief minister and quit the Congress.

Earlier, one of the BJP's oldest allies, the SAD, moved out of the NDA over the issue of farm sector laws.

The alliance with Amarinder Singh and Dhindsa would associate the BJP with prominent Sikh faces in the state.