New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s decision to give a ticket to Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) MLA from Kalanwali in Haryana, Balkaur Singh, on its own symbol for the assembly elections this time has soured the relationship between the two oldest National Democratic Alliance partners.Though SAD (Badal) has never parted ways from the BJP in any of the general elections, the recent act of the saffron party of poaching one of its leaders did not go down well with the Akalis. The SAD has now broken away from BJP and joined hands with the Indian National Lok Dal, now headed by Abhay Singh Chautala, son of former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, for the assembly polls.While moving away, SAD termed BJP’s poaching of its MLA as “unethical” and accused the saffron party of backtracking on promises made during the Lok Sabha elections while contesting in Haryana together.Also read: Haryana: CM, Ministers, Three International Sportspersons Make It to BJP’s First ListWhile the political significance of this move in Haryana may not be much, it certainly does not augur well for the BJP’s projection of it willing to play the role of a big brother even when it has numbers of its own to form governments. Even after the Lok Sabha elections, BJP, which had won 303 seats on its own, had only given token representation to its alliance partners in the Council of Ministers. This had irked the Janata Dal (United) led by Nitish Kumar and it decided to stay out of the Modi government.Though SAD’s Harsimrat Kaur Badal was again made a minister in the Centre, the first assembly election after the Lok Sabha polls is throwing up fractures within the NDA. Instead of tying up with SAD, which had broken away from INLD and joined it ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP decided to walk it alone by snatching their lone MLA in Haryana.The SAD response has been quick and sharp. It broke its ties with BJP in Haryana and went back to INLD, which had partnered with the Bahujan Samaj Party during the Lok Sabha elections.Also read: Interview: ‘Haryana BJP Govt Not Honest, Only Manner of Corruption Has Changed’The two parties, which had drifted apart following differences over sharing of waters between Haryana and Punjab through the Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal, came together to announce a pre-poll tie-up.As per the arrangement, the Akalis have announced that they would contest the Kalanwali, Ratia and Guhla Cheeka seats. All these constituencies have a significant presence of Sikh voters.In an indicator of the changing mood, party president Sukhbir Singh Badal said party founder Parkash Singh Badal and INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala, who is out on parole, would accompany the candidates for the Ratia and Kalanwali seats during the filing of nominations.Paying the BJP back with the same coin, SAD has got saffron-party leader Rajinder Singh Desujodha into its camp and handed him ticket for the Kalanwali seat. Its candidate for Ratia is Kulwinder Singh Kunal while Ram Kumar Revarh Jagir has been picked to lead the charge in Guhla Cheeka.