Sukhbir Badal asserted that the regional parties were as crucial as the national parties to run a coalition.
CHANDIGARH: Punjab deputy chief minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Badal on Tuesday said the NDA must "announce its prime ministerial candidate at the earliest to gain clear majority in the coming 2014 polls" and asserted his party has no differences with its main ally BJP on its choice for the post.
Badal's renewed aggression came in the backdrop of a Times Now-CVoter opinion poll that predicted a hung parliament. The poll projects that the NDA would win 156 seats with the BJP getting 131 of them, while the UPA would win 136 with the Congress pegged to 119.
"Considering that UPA is already weakened after the pullout by its allies and doesn't have the policy of announcing its PM candidate, it's now important that the NDA should name its PM candidate after such opinion polls," Badal told TOI. "We are with the BJP on whoever that candidate is," he said, when asked if his party would support the saffron party's poll campaign chief Narendra Modi as the alliance's choice for the PM post.
But Badal didn't agree with the final tally the survey gave in favour of the BJP. "The BJP alone is going to cross the 200-mark. And with allies, we will easily scrape through the requisite number to form the government," he said.
The SAD president asserted that the regional parties were as crucial as the national parties to run a coalition. "National parties are becoming more regional. In fact, they are becoming big regional parties. Their presence has been confined to just three or four states. Regional parties understand the issues of the people better and will play a key role," he said.
Without mentioning ruling regional parties like TMC and AIADMK, he also hinted at taking more allies on board after the elections but ruled out any pre-poll seat-sharing with them. "Once the elections are over there will be a lot of permutations and combinations emerging. We are already talking to a few people. Once the elections are over, you will know," he said
Badal also disagreed with the Times Now-CVoter tally for Punjab. "You are giving us nine out of 13 seats, but it is going to be 12-13," he said
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