Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday took a swipe at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) amid buzz of an alliance ahead of the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections, news agency ANI reported from New Delhi.
Source: ANI via Indian Economic Observer
In a post on X, Kejriwal wrote: "Majithia and Amit Shah ji are extremely close, just like brothers. By allying with Majithia now, Amit Shah ji will eradicate drugs from Punjab. This will be the eighth wonder of the world. Wow, Modi ji, wow. What planning you've done." The post is Kejriwal's political jibe at the BJP and SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia over Punjab's drug issue; it is reported here as his statement, not as a finding of fact. Majithia has consistently denied drug-related allegations against him, Nation Press noted in its report of the same post.
Other AAP leaders made similar statements the same day. AAP Punjab in-charge Manish Sisodia said Shah's plan was to join hands with Majithia, and AAP Punjab president Aman Arora told reporters that both the BJP and SAD had until a few months ago said they would contest all 117 seats independently, but had changed their statements after assessing the public mood on the ground, National Times reported.
Source: National Times
BJP state unit repeats solo-117 line
Amid the alliance reports, Punjab BJP president Kewal Singh Dhillon reiterated that the party will contest all 117 Assembly seats in the state, ANI reported. No BJP-SAD alliance has been announced by either party.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah had earlier said the resolve was to free Punjab from the drug trade by December 31, 2029, and, addressing a gathering in the national capital, warned Kejriwal that the AAP government would be "rooted out" of Punjab, according to the same ANI report.
The SAD broke away from the BJP in September 2020 over protests against the three farm laws. In the 2022 elections, the Akali Dal won three seats while the BJP won two, ANI noted. A day earlier, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal had said his party was open to joining hands with like-minded parties while ruling out any tie-up with the Congress and AAP, PTI reported — a statement the BJP state unit's solo line now sits alongside, leaving the alliance question formally unanswered by both parties.
Kejriwal's post, the AAP leaders' remarks, Dhillon's solo-117 reiteration and Badal's earlier openness to like-minded parties are all statements by the parties concerned. Neither the BJP nor the SAD has announced an alliance for 2027.