NEW DELHI, November 5: In a dramatic change in stance, the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) has decided not to contest the Assembly elections in Delhi. It has decided to support its alliance partner, the BJP, on all 70 seats. After a series of unsuccessful meetings with the top leaders on both sides on the seat-sharing arranement, the decision was reached early this morning.``We are not angry with the BJP. There are no bad feelings. Earlier we would have worked for only four seats but now we will work for all 70,''said SS Dhindsa, general secreatry SAD.For the last three days senior leaders like Surjeet Singh Barnala had camped in the city to negotiate with the BJP. The talks were deadlocked over the issue of exact seats. While the Akalis wanted plum seats like Hari Nagar and Tilak Nagar, BJP had made it clear that it would not under any circumstances part with seats which had sitting MLAs. Apparently, there were strong interanl protest from BJP workers if they gave those seats to the Akalis. On the other hand, the SAD leaders were miffed at being offered seats which had traditionaly been Congress stronghols like Vishnu garden, Gandhinagar and Jangpura.Early this morning, the negotiation committee of the SAD consisting of Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Balwinder Singh Bhunder, Prem Singh Chandu Majra, Avtar Singh Hit and Paramjit Singh Sarna decided to not contest on the four seats that the BJP was offering to them - Vishnu Garden, Jangpura, Gandhinagar and Rajouri Garden. The decision was conveyed to the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Delhi chief minister Sushma Swaraj in a meeting held to commmorate the tricentenary celebrations of the Khalsa Panth.``The BJP is still asking us to contest, but we realised that Congress is going to benefit if we concentrate only on four seats. Our common aim is to defeat the Congress at any cost,'' said Dhindsa. They have promised the BJP that their top leaders like Barnala, Prakash Singh Badal, president SAD and Gurcharan Singh Tohra, SGPC president will campaign for the BJP.In their official press release, the SAD leaders say that ``Congress had altered the whole social equation by bringing to the fore elements known to have played heinous and bloody role during the November massacre''.However, earlier senior leaders in the party had gone on record to say that they will not contest elections if they are not given winning seats. There were other indications to show that all was not well between the two parties on the seat-sharing issue. Put in a catch 22 situation where voting for Congress was completely out, they had chosen the BJP as an alliance partner.``The BJP will be fielding Sikh candidates where we are not contesting like Jangpura and Gandhinagar,'' said Dhindsa hinting that there interest would be kept in mind by the party. ``To defeat the Congress we are ready to put jaan ki baazi (even bet our lives),'' said Dhindsa.
