BJP, Amarinder Singh Decide On Panel To Thrash Out Punjab Seat-Sharing

A six-member panel will finalise the seat-sharing pact between the BJP, Amarinder Singh's Punjab Lok Congress and former Akali Dal leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa's front for the upcoming Punjab polls.

The decision was taken at a meeting between Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president J P Nadda, BJP's Punjab in-charge and Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Mr Dhindsa, among others.

Speaking to the media after the meeting, Mr Shekhawat said a panel of two representatives each from the two parties will discuss the seat-sharing formula and all key issues relating to Punjab. The panel, he said, will prepare a joint manifesto to create "a new Punjab".

The BJP, sources said, is keen to emerge as the 'Big Brother' in the alliance by keeping a lion's share of around 70 out of 117 assembly seats. Mr Singh's outfit can be given 30-35 seats and Mr Dhindsa's front can get 10-15 seats.

Prime Minister Modi is likely to launch the alliance's campaign in Punjab with a rally in the first week of January.

Mr Singh, who stepped down as Chief Minister and quit Congress after a bitter power tussle within the state party unit, had said earlier this month that the alliance is confirmed and only seat-sharing equations need to be finalised. "We will see who will contest where, our criteria for seat selection is purely winnability," Mr Singh had told the media after a meeting with Mr Shekhawat.

The 79-year-old had also expressed confidence that the alliance will put up a good show in the upcoming polls.

"The alliance will definitely, 101 per cent win the elections. You can take that in writing," he had said.

Mr Shekhawat had said in a separate post that it took "seven rounds of talks" to forge the alliance.

Mr Singh, who led the Congress to a thumping victory in the 2017 Assembly elections, is now up against it in his fight for political survival. While stepping down as Punjab Chief Minister months before the elections, he had said he was repeatedly "humiliated" by the Congress high command.

In his resignation letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, which he also shared on Twitter, he had said he is "neither tired nor retired".