Even as the BJP is in the throes of a crisis at the centre, its Punjab unit has been sabre rattling against its coalition partner, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). The two partners arrived at a truce on Tuesday with chief minister Parkash Singh Badal personally escorting his errant MLA, S S Makkar, who had reportedly abused the senior-most BJP minister Manoranjan Kalia last week, to deliver an apology to Kalia. But several irritants remain in the relationship between the two parties.
The Makkar episode was only the latest of several incidents that have marred the relationship between the two alliance partners with a standing of nearly three decades. The vote banks of the two parties complement each other, with the Akalis holding sway in rural areas and the BJP having its strongholds in urban areas.
Previously, the relationship had been mostly remained lopsided with the Akalis commanding the much larger support base. But this position shifted during the 2007 Assembly polls when the BJP surprised everyone by winning 19 seats, giving the alliance the crucial edge to form government. The Congress mustered 44 of the 117 seats while the SAD bagged just four more.
The first problem came with the BJP?s demand for the post of deputy chief minister. The chief minister was, however, not keen to offer the post to the party evidently because he wanted to keep it for his son Sukhbir. There were differences over allocation of number of berths and then allocation of portfolios but these were resolved with the intervention of the BJP central leadership.
But the differences persisted and came to a boil during the municipal and panchayat elections last year. Both parties attempted to spread into each other?s territory. Several incidents were reported in which the Akali workers allegedly harassed and beat up BJP workers.
In the recent Lok Sabha elections, BJP candidates trailed in 17 of the 19 Assembly segments represented by the BJP MLAs. The poor showing has considerably weakened its position and some Akali leaders blame the party for the poor showing of the coalition in the elections.
The abuse hurled by Makkar on the BJP minister was a manifestation of this resentment in the SAD.
