Sukhbir Badal said BJP and SAD are natural allies and said it is not a "give and take relationship"
NDA allies should quickly settle their differences and strengthen the alliance to prep for general elections next year that he described as "a war-like situation", Akali Dal president Sukhbir Badal said on Wednesday. Mr Badal's message is seen aimed at other alliance partners of the NDA who have been complaining about the BJP and came just hours before BJP chief Amit Shah meets Shiv Sena's Uddhav Thackeray.
Mr Thackeray's Shiv Sena has been particularly unhappy at the BJP's management of the alliance and has threatened to contest the next year's election on its own. Just like it had contested the recent bypolls in Palghar.
The
Telugu Desam Party has also quit the NDA alliance over the statehood for Andhra Pradesh.
BJP chief Amit Shah's meeting with Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray to cut a political deal is on an unstable ground after
an editorial in Saamana proclaimed that for the BJP, "relationships are business calculations".
Mr Shah
has travelled to the financial capital specifically to assuage Mr Thackeray who has been prolific and creative in his criticism of the BJP though they run Maharashtra together. Amit Shah has been trying to
win over allies, especially the party in a bid to strengthen the National Democratic Alliance.
The BJP and the SAD "
natural allies", Mr Badal said, and also asserted it is not a "give and take relationship".
Calling Congress as the main opposition of all NDA allies in all states, Mr Badal endorsed PM Modi as the leader and the "face of NDA".
Mr Badal also expressed his gratitude to PM Modi for accepting the party's demand to
waive GST on food material used for 'langar' served in gurudwaras as well as on food served free of cost in all other religious places.
In the 2014 general elections, the SAD contested 10 out of 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab with the BJP fighting the other three. As of now, the SAD has four seats and the BJP one.
Mr Badal's comments come a day before BJP president Amit Shah's meeting with him and another SAD patriarch Parkash Singh Badal in Chandigarh.