SAD-BJP to contest 2017 Punjab assembly polls together: Parkash Singh Badal

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Thursday said the SAD-BJP alliance was firm and everlasting and will fight the 2017 assembly polls together even as he cautioned people against a "conspiracy" by AAP and Congress to "deprive" Punjab of its water resources.

The veteran Akali Dal leader said the party candidates for the polls will be announced at a suitable time.

"There is still ample time for elections and the announcement of candidates would be made at an appropriate time," Badal told reporters here on the sidelines of his Sangat Darshan programme in Mehal Kalan assembly segment.

He claimed that the SAD-BJP alliance was a unique phenomenon in the history of the Indian democracy which has given a new direction to "our polity."

"The people of the state have reposed their faith in this alliance time and again," he said and asserted that there was hardly an instance of bickering between the alliance partners.

Earlier, addressing people during gatherings in Mehal Kalan, Nihaaluwal, Kutba and Maangewal villages, Badal said that Punjab has been blessed with bounty of natural resources like river waters and fertile land.

But the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) "are now jointly conspiring to deprive the state and its people of their most precious resources-the river waters," he said.

Badal cautioned people that if the river waters were robbed from state than its entire economy would be ruined.