The Shiromani Akali Dal's Delhi unit today announced that it has unanimously decided to contest 16 seats on its own in the forthcoming assembly poll, but a final call will be taken by the party high command.
The core committee of Delhi unit of SAD (Badal) has unanimously passed a resolution to this effect and has sent a letter to the party president Sukhbir Singh Badal to take a call on the issue.
"The party's core committee of Delhi unit has decided to contest 16 Punjabi-dominated seats in the national capital alone," said SAD Delhi president Manjit Singh GK.
On its tie-up with BJP, Singh said the party high command will take a call on the issue on whether to honour the sentiments of the party workers or follow its coalition dharma.
He recalled that the SAD had a poll tie-up with INLD in the last Haryana Assembly polls and had contested two seats and its candidate won from Rori assembly seat.
Manjit Singh said the Delhi unit of the party has left it to the party high command to decide on the issue.
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.
Among the seats that the local unit had identified for contesting alone included Moti Nagar, Rajouri Garden, Tilak Nagar, Hari Nagar, Janakpuri Madipur and Nangloi in West Delhi and Shakur Basti, Adarsh Nagar and Timarpur in north Delhi.
In areas across the Yamuna, the party has said that it wishes to contest from Shahdara, Krishan Nagar and Rohtash Nagar, besides South Delhi constituencies greater Kailash and Kalkaji, besides Rajinder Nagar in Central Delhi.
Singh said these areas are Punjabi-dominated with sizeable Sikh population and the party stands a strong chance of winning the seats.
The SAD (Badal) is in alliance with BJP in Punjab and is in power since 2007. The alliance created history in Punjab by second successive victory in the 2012 assembly polls by defeating the Congress. Punjab had never seen a repeat of a government in the past.
