Badal may meet Shah Friday; alliance talks on the agenda

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Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal. File | Photo Credit: PTI

A likely meeting between SAD president Sukhbir Badal and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on November 13 is expected to place the seal on a fresh alliance after the SAD broke away in 2020. This will put to rest speculation doing the rounds that the Shiromani Akali Dal and BJP are getting back together ahead of the 2027 Punjab assembly election.

SAD sources said that Mr. Badal is expected to leave for New Delhi later in the day after a rally at Raikot to meet Mr. Shah. Seat sharing and finalisation of an alliance for the Punjab election are expected to be on the agenda. With leaders from both parties remaining tight-lipped about the deliberations, sources indicate that an announcement is likely to be made this month.

In August this year, Mr. Badal met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi to discuss the possibility of renewing the alliance.

The SAD and the BJP had been in an alliance since the late 1990s, but the controversy over the Centre’s agriculture sector laws led to the SAD – one of the BJP’s oldest alliance partners – breaking away from the NDA coalition in 2020.

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