Punjab elections: We have suffered in gathbandhan with SAD, have no desire to go back into bad marriage, says Hardeep Singh Puri

Feb 05,2022

Union minister and BJP co-incharge of state assembly elections in Punjab Hardeep Singh Puribelieves that February 20 will spring many surprises but since the party had earlier suffered in its alliance with the SAD, they have no desire to go back into that bad marriage. Interacting with TOI's Sanjeev Verma, the Union minister said the election campaign has just started and the picture about the BJP's main opponent will only get clearer at least after a week.

When is Prime Minister Narendra Modi visiting Punjab for the election campaign?

That is yet to be decided, as to what will be the mode and when he will come. But there will be many interactions.
The BJP had earlier been opposing Capt Amarinder Singh, that as a CM he failed to fulfill promises like curbing drug menace, justice in sacrilege cases, Ghar-Ghar Rozgar and complete farm debt waiver. Then why did the BJP choose to shake hands with him?

We were opposing a Congress chief minister. We have always been very soft about Amarinder Singh. You saw how warm I was. It has been a great privilege for me to share the dias with him. He is an icon of the Sikh community. He is a person whose commitment to the national cause is second to none. More than that, even when we were opening up the Kartarpur Sahib corridor, he refused to do jhappi-pappi politics with (Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed) Bajwa. He (Amarinder) said he will not meet him (Bajwa). Whereas see the politics of that other person (Navjot Singh Sidhu) who wants to become the chief minister.
Capt Amarinder Singh-led PLC's 5 candidates chose to contest on BJP's election symbol and had to even surrender three seats to the BJP as they could not find suitable candidates. Does this not affect his credibility?
There may even be more. There is a very simple reason for that. BJP is a national party and a lot of people want to join it. They may be from Capt Amarinder's party. Amarinder has recommended many of our candidates as there is an interactive process there. It is for a simple reason that they see a long term future with the BJP. Captain's party is Punjab specific. Whereas we are active throughout the country. We are 303 in the Lok Sabha and we are going to win the UP elections. So a lot of people draw more comfort from that. We are open about this and there is no issue of 65, 68 or 70 (seats).
Can we see Capt Amarinder Singh himself joining the BJP after a few days?
He has formed his own party and whether that party is already aligned with a thing. These are not the things I would like to speculate. Captain is a very senior and a very tall leader. Whatever he does, we will respect.
Since there are no permanent enemies in politics, if the BJP-led alliance and also the SAD-BSP alliance fall short of the required seats to form the government, is there a possibility of old allies coming together?
Out of question. I am supporting what my senior colleague Gajendra Singh Shekhawat ji said because of some comment by somebody (former SAD leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa) who had joined the BJP, because that was a very personal level comment. There is no possibility of this (alliance with the SAD-BSP). We have suffered in that gathbandhan with the SAD, so we have no desire to go back into that bad marriage.
AAP and the SAD-BSP alliance are clear about their CM face and the Congress is going to announce its CM face on February 6. Who is going to be the CM face of your alliance?
The BJP parliamentary board will decide and then they will have a discussion with Captain and Dhindsa Sahib (SAD Sanyukt president Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa).
How do you find Sanyukt Samaj Morcha's decision to contest the Punjab assembly polls?
The question is, how do I find them? Anybody wants to contest an election, that is the essence of our democratic electoral freedom. I mean, if you qualify in terms of age and eligibility, please contest the election. I have long held the view that the ultimate success of democratic functioning comes because you have the recourse to reconciliation of positions through the ballot box. That is not the only one. You have courts of law and you have other things. But if you did not have that, you would have a very interesting situation. If I disagree with you, what is the recourse? In the ultimate analysis, if you have political clout, no matter how you interpret that, you can dominate me. If you have financial clout, you can dominate me. If you have neither, then it comes to physical things.
So, I welcome anybody who wants to contest the elections. But I am not answering with reference to your question. I am responding with reference to a philosophical point. A lot of entities come in as start ups in a system, they completely change. Let me give you an example. Do you remember the Anna Hazare movement? It was an anti-establishment movement, designed to root out corruption in what was widely perceived to be a corrupt political establishment. (AAP national convener Arvind) Kejriwal is a product of that. See where he started and where he has reached. I am merely stopping there.
Various political strategists and poll surveys have predicted that the AAP is likely to emerge as the single largest party in Punjab elections.
The AAP has tried Punjab earlier. Their USP (unique selling proposition) is that they come with very strong populist kind of things, and AAP has instant gratification for everybody. They will give 300 units of free power. Delhi is a rich state. Don't know what you did there, or not. I am asking our people to tell us about those who are getting free electricity in Delhi. They (AAP) were saying, make the metro ride free. Then I asked Kejriwal ji one day what he wanted. Does he want to make the metro as Delhi Transport Undertaking? Buses have reduced by 30% and have become worse. They claim that new buses will come. Metro ridership pre-Covid period was 65 lakh. It will again come to that level.
See their track record. They now claim that they will make Punjab drug-free. What did they do in Delhi? They opened liquor vends in every residential colony. They claim about the success of mohalla clinics but these clinics packed up during Covid. Delhi would have nearly two crore population and UP would have 20 crore. They asked for more oxygen than UP. What were they doing with that extra oxygen? Were they hoarding it? I am giving you just small pointers - what they say and what they do. But I am a very proud Punjabi and I am a Sikh. People of Punjab will see through these guys. I have asked my people to make a group of doctors from Delhi who know what is going on in mohalla clinics so that they should tell people here in Punjab.
How do you see the contest in the Amritsar East constituency from where SAD MLA Bikram Singh Majithia has taken the challenge to contest against Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu?
It is a very interesting contest. There are two leaders there. One is Sidhu, who is a very colourful man, some might say controversial. Another is Majithia, who is also very colourful. One of them has to lose. But my submission to you is that our candidate (Jagmohan Singh Raju) will win.
How do you see Rahul Gandhi's statement in the Parliament that the judiciary, the election commission and the Pegasus are being used by the Centre as tools to destroy voices of various states?
Rahul Gandhi makes statements sometimes which are incoherent. I was not in the Parliament that day. I have only seen these in reference books. I don't want to dignify this statement with any comment.
BJP's MP from Gurdaspur Sunny Deol has not started campaigning in Punjab till now and people in his constituency say they find it difficult to approach him.
I have no knowledge of that. He is a very famous film star and I am sure that he will be campaigning. But when and how, I don't have any idea. Maybe you should have people like me who didn't win any election and they are here all the time. So I don't know.
Don't you find it surprising that the opposing political parties have fielded weak candidates against big politicians in Punjab, including Parkash Singh Badal, Sukhbir Singh Badal, Charanjit Singh Channi?
I am not aware of that. In any case, look whether there is any collusion among them, let us forget that. It is not good for me to comment on that. But this election will see many surprises.
Sri Hargobindpur Congress MLA Balwinder Singh Laddi, who joined the BJP on December 28 last year, returned to his parent party after 6 days. What were the reasons?
These are individual decisions. I don't see there is any policy issue or anything of very serious significance to the BJP involved in this. We wish him best of luck wherever he is.