Akali Dal Releases List For Punjab Polls

Akali Dal president and former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal yesterday took the lead in releasing the first list of his partys candidates for the February 6 assembly elections.

At a news conference here last evening, Badal released the list of 32 Akali Dal candidates, covering 13 districts. He said the party high command would finalise all the candidates for the 117- member state assembly by January 13.

The Akali Dal has already agreed to give 23 assembly seats to the Bharatiya Janata Party, its alliance partner for the coming assembly polls.

Badal ruled out the possibility of a tie up with the Bahujan Samaj Party or any political party other than the BJP. He was evasive while facing a volley of questions about likely tie ups with other political parties. Our alliance with the BJP is open and transparent, he said.

 

Badal also hinted that he would contest only one assembly seat. Party sources said the Akali supremo is most likely to contest from the Lambi assembly constituency in district Faridkot. The first Akali list has only three women candidates. According to informed party sources, a majority of the Akali candidates figuring in the first party list are Badals trusted persons.

Badal said more women as well as members of the other communities would figure in the subsequent lists of the Akali candidates to be released in the next few days.

Our Political Bureau adds :

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would be contesting for 23 of the 117 assembly seats in Punjab as per its agreement with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which would contest the rest of the seats.

Leaders of the two parties met yesterday to chalk out the strategy for the polls and to decide the issues which would be the focus of the election campaign.