The Shiromani Akali Dal (Punar Surjit) faction is part of potential talks on a pre-poll alliance between the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Punjab.The Tribune has learnt from reliable sources that senior faction leaders are being engaged on possibilities of contesting the 2027 Assembly polls.Although there is no clarity yet on how and under what arrangement they will contest, the likelihood is that they may contest on the traditional SAD symbol of ‘weighing scale’, considering they quit the Sukhbir Badal-led party on August 11, 2025.An informed source told The Tribune that the main leaders of the Akali Dal (Punar Surjit) being wooed for a larger alliance in the state include Bibi Jagir Kaur, Gurpartap Singh Wadala, Prem Singh Chandumajra and Gobind Singh Longowal, among others.Importantly, all these leaders were part of the SAD in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, when the party was ahead of the BJP in nearly 49 Assembly seats and the BJP was ahead of the Akalis on the rest.In the ongoing alliance talks, the factor of 10 Akali Dal stalwarts having deserted Sukhbir Badal in 2025 will also come up.Related news: Hard bargain for seats in Punjab, CM post on table for BJP-SAD pact talksApart from the above-mentioned leaders of the Punar Surjit Akali Dal, others in this segment who are no longer with the Sukhbir-led faction are Justice Nirmal Singh, Harmeet Singh Sandhu, Iqbal Singh Jhundan, Manpreet Singh Ayali (who joined Waris Punjab De), Hardeep Singh Dhillon, Guriqbal Singh Mahal and Sukhwinder Sukhi.“Out of 49 Assembly seats in which Shiromani Akali Dal was ahead of BJP in the 2024 General Election, ten candidates on ten seats have left SAD. These factors are important when deliberating on seat-sharing arrangements,” said a BJP insider.While the BJP is principally talking about any pre-poll alliance being based on the results of the last major elections in Punjab — the 2024 Lok Sabha polls — the Shiromani Akali Dal wants the average outcomes in the last three election cycles to be factored in. These are the 2022 Assembly polls, 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the recent rural and urban local body polls.In the 2022 state polls, SAD had done better than the BJP, while in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had done better than SAD.The main factor driving the logic of a SAD-BJP pre-poll alliance is their combined vote share of 31 per cent in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections — 18.5 per cent for the BJP and 13.5 per cent for SAD.Officially, the BJP has clarified that it will contest all 117 seats in the state. But privately, sources say alliance possibilities are being explored.