Sukhbir Badal meets PM Modi, fuels alliance buzz ahead of Punjab polls next year

Badal-PM Modi meet sparked SAD-BJP alliance buzzNEW DELHI: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament on Friday. The meeting has sparked buzz over whether the BJP and the SAD are preparing to turn the page on years of political estrangement ahead of the Punjab assembly elections due early next year.For both the BJP and the SAD, the timing is significant. Once the state's dominant political combine, the two parties have spent the past several years on the margins of Punjab politics, watching their traditional support base shrink while Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party gradually emerged as the state's principal political force.The BJP-SAD partnership, which lasted for over two decades, parted ways in September 2020 after the Akali Dal walked