Don't want BJP-SAD alliance broken at any cost, says Harshvardhan

NEW DELHI: BJP today said it was making all efforts to fight the Delhi Assembly election unitedly with its "natural ally" --Shromani Akali Dal-- to defeat the Congress government and asserted that the party does not want the alliance to break at "any cost".

BJP's initiative to salvage the alliance came in the backdrop of Delhi unit of Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) announcing to contest 16 seats on its own in the December 4 assembly polls while breaking away from one of its oldest allies.

"We have been working in close coordination with them and I would never like the alliance to be broken at any cost. This is the view of the party also. Efforts are on and I expect the results to be positive," BJP's Chief Ministerial candidate Harsh Vardhan said.

The core committee of Delhi unit of SAD (Badal) on October 22 had unanimously passed a resolution on going it alone and sent a letter to the party president Sukhbir Singh Badal to take a call on the issue.

Describing the SAD (Badal) as a natural ally of the BJP, Vardhan said he was confident that the relationship will continue and that both parties will work with the sole aim of defeating the Congress in the polls.

"For the last so many years we have always had alliance with Akali Dal. They are our natural allies. Our alliance with the party is yet not over. The final thing has yet not emerged," he told PTI in an interview.

In the last assembly polls in Delhi in 2008, SAD Delhi had contested from four constituencies in alliance with BJP but lost all the seats.