In an interesting development, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced that the saffron party will contest all 117 seats in the upcoming Assembly elections in Punjab. The state Punjab is slated to go to the polls next year.
“The party will contest on all seats in the upcoming Assembly elections in the State,” ANI quoted Punjab BJP president Ashwani Sharma, who attended the national executive meeting virtually earlier today, as saying.
This development comes amid the infighting in the Punjab Congress and the change of guards in the state.
Former Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh resigned from Congress on Tuesday and announced a new party ‘Punjab Lok Congress’ ahead of the upcoming state elections.
Singh had resigned in September as the chief minister of Punjab and had announced that he will be quitting the party after months of a rift with Congress state chief Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Congress swept 2017 Punjab polls
Congress had won an absolute majority in the 2017 Assembly polls in Punjab by winning 77 seats and ousted the SAD-BJP government after 10 years, while AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) emerged as the second-largest party winning 20 seats in 117-member Punjab Legislative Assembly.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) could only manage to bag 15 seats while the BJP secured 3 seats.
A meeting of BJP’s Executive Committee was held today. The meeting was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president JP Nadda. Around 342 members participated in today’s meeting.
A discussion was held regarding election strategy in seven states that will go to Assembly polls next year.
The seven states slated to go for Assembly elections in the year 2022 are Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat.
