NEW DELHI: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will have no truck with the Prakash Singh Badalled Akali Dal for the future Assembly elections in Punjab since it had entered into an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), its supremo Kanshi Ram said here last week. Mr. Ram said, “I do not understand the rationale of the Akali Dal in having a tie up with a party which is not favorably disposed towards the Sikh panth.” The BSP did not break the alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) but it was the latter which went after the BJP and broke off with the BSP, he said.
Recalling the post Lok Sabha poll scenario, the BSP supremo said he had asked the Akalis to wait for some time but the Akali leaders were in a hurry to tag on to that party and get the Brar Government dismissed. The BSP leader said he was aware of the secret deal the Akalis had entered into with the BJP at the time of the last Lok Sabha elections. “Ignored it,” he said, adding that he hoped the Akalis would mend their ways. BSP Chief Kanshi Ram said that the Assembly elections in Punjab might coincide with the parliamentary polls and his party would form an alliance with the Congress as a part of the overall tie up on national level. When asked whether any principle was involved in his party’s relation with the Congress, he said, “My goal is to ensure that the Bahujan Samaj Party should take over the levers of power in Delhi.” He said that they would not directly contest the coming Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) elections on the party level but extend support to the panthic party there. Mr. Kanshi Ram, however, made it clear that his party had not yet initiated an alliance process with the Congress in Punjab. But he ruled out any alliance with a political party which is having a tie up with the BJP, whom it (BSP) regard as its main political adversary and number one “Manuwadi party.”
Article extracted from this publication >> August 21, 1996
