New Delhi: The Shiromani Akali Dal, which has been given four seats under the electoral alliance with BJP, has decided to contest on its ally's symbol on two seats and the other two on its own symbol in poll-bound Delhi.

Such a formula was arrived at a meeting today which was attended by SAD chief and Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal and senior BJP leaders including V K Malhotra and Arun Jaitley.

SAD leaders said in Rajouri Garden and Shahdara, where Sikhs have majority, its candidates will fight on the symbol balance while in Adarsh Nagar and Jungpura, the party would use BJP poll symbol Lotus.            

Delhi SAD president Manjit Singh explained, "In Rajouri Garden, there are over 80,000 Punjabi voters, including 50,000 Sikhs, and hence our candidate Avtar Singh Hit has a greater chance to win."

Sitting Congress MLA Dayanand Chandila has done no work in his tenure for welfare of Sikh community, Singh claimed.

Initially, SAD was keen to contest on its own symbol on all the four seats, but later it had to give in to the BJP's argument that the Lotus symbol, being more popular, will garner more votes for the SAD candidates.

SAD candidates Ravinder Khurana will contest from Adarsh Nagar, Manjit Singh Sirsa from Jungpura, Jitender Singh Shunti from Shahadra besides Hit who will fight from Rajouri Garden.

In MCD, the BJP ally had fought on Lotus symbol and won seven seats and now it hopes to make its presence felt in the Assembly.

 

Source : PTI