Ahead of Punjab assembly elections, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in talks with both Amarinder Singh’s party and Shiromani Akali and an alliance may come up.

Amit Shah was delivering the keynote address of the concluding session of the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit and said that his party is in talks with both the parties with a positive note and an alliance may be formed.

Also read: ‘Gangster rap’ star Sidhu Moosewala joins Congress, may fight polls next year

“The election in Punjab will be fought on merit and vikas,” Shah said, adding it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s large heart that he withdrew the farm laws against which the farmers of Punjab have been protesting.

The Punjab assembly election is scheduled to be held next year. This election will be an interesting fight as former chief minister Amarinder Singh has exited from the Congress and floated his own party,  Punjab Lok Congress, which is open to forging an alliance with the BJP.

Also read: Sugarcane-sweetness or Jinnah? Yogi Adityanath asks country to make a choice

Punjab’s BJP general secretary in charge Dushtant Gautam said the party is preparing to contest all 117 seats in the assembly election and the high command will decide on whether to go with Amarinder Singh or not.

Amarinder Singh’s party is also open to an alliance with like-minded parties, such as breakaway Akali groups, particularly Dhindsa and Brahmpura factions.

Earlier, the farm laws stood between Amarinder and the BJP as the former CM strongly opposed the farm laws. But now, with the laws withdrawn, there is no roadblock in an alliance between Amarinder Singh and the BJP.

In the 2017 Punjab Assembly polls, Congress won an absolute majority in the state by winning 77 seats and ousted the SAD-BJP government after 10 years.