Chandigarh, Feb 3 (IANS): The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Wednesday warned against attempts by the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to "divide Punjab through communal polarisation".

"Both the Congress and the AAP are making a last minute attempt to derail the narrative of peace, communal harmony and development as they have been stunned by the mounting surge of Akali wave as the polling date draws closer," Harcharan Bains, Principal Advisor to Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Badal, said.

"This is what lies at the root of their mutually orchestrated conspiracies to inject a new communal element into the campaign. But the SAD-BSP will not allow any attempts at communal polarisation to succeed," he said in a statement.

Bains said the reason behind this swing towards communal polarisation is that AAP's "social media bubble" has suddenly burst. The bubble was created by pumping in thousands of crores into a massive publicity and propaganda campaign through fake news and fake surveys.

But now the realisation has dawned on them that these ploys have not been able to stop the SAD-BSP upsurge.

Bains said AAP and the Congress have realised that they have lost the election already but this has driven to the desperate, last minute resort to playing the Hindu-Sikh communal card.

Asserting that attempts to divide Punjabis will never be allowed to succeed, Bains said, "Punjab is another name for human brotherhood where the dominant communities Hindus and Sikhs have always coexisted in mutual love and trust with Muslims and Christians. No one will be able to divide us."

In the fray for 117 seats in Punjab are three prominent parties -- the ruling Congress, the opposition Aam Aadmi Party and the Sanyukt Samaj Morcha, and two alliances -- the SAD-BSP and the BJP-Punjab Lok Congress.

Punjab will go to the polls in a single phase on February 20 and the counting of ballots will take place on March 10.