BJP to fight all 117 assembly seats in Punjab in 2027: Union minister Bittu

Chandigarh, Oct 13 (PTI) Union Minister Ravneet Singh Bittu on Monday said the BJP will fight all 117 assembly seats in the 2027 Punjab Assembly polls, virtually ruling out the possibility of an alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal.

Replying to a question whether the BJP will again go for an alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Bittu said his party's stand is clear that it is preparing to fight all 117 assembly seats in Punjab during the 2027 assembly polls.

"We are preparing for the 117 assembly seats," he said while speaking to reporters here.

He said the BJP's Punjab unit working president, Ashwani Sharma, has also made this clear.

"What face will we show to the people if we today compromise with them (SAD)," said Bittu as he targeted the SAD over drugs and sacrilege issues.

He said the party is also fighting the Tarn Taran assembly bypoll alone.

The SAD had parted ways with the National Democratic Alliance in 2020 over the three now-repealed farm laws issue.

On Congress leader P Chidambaram's remarks on 'Operation Blue Star', Bittu asked the Punjab Congress leaders to clarify their stand.

"Senior party leader Chidambaram is saying it was the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's mistake. Punjab Congress leaders should make their stand clear on Chidambaram's statement. If your leader is saying it, then you should also say something," said Bittu.

Chidambaram, while speaking at a literary event in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh, on Saturday, said that Operation Blue Star was a "wrong way" to take on the militants and Indira Gandhi "paid the price with her life for the mistake".

Chidambaram, a Rajya Sabha MP, while in conversation with journalist and author Harinder Baweja on her book 'They Will Shoot You Madam: My Life Through Conflict', said, "There was a way to retrieve and capture all militants but Operation Blue Star was a wrong way and I agree that Mrs Gandhi paid with her life for the mistake but the mistake was cumulative decision of the Army, Intelligence, Police and Civil defense and you cannot completely blame on Mrs Gandhi".

Operation Blue Star was a military operation undertaken between June 1 and June 10, 1984, against Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale-led armed militants who were holed up on the premises of the Golden Temple in Amritsar. Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984. PTI CHS RT RT