Punjab is set for a four-cornered election with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the BJP failing to reach an understanding on seats. They join the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress, the top two parties in the state, in the battle for 13 Lok Sabha seats. This is the first time since 1996 that the BJP will be fighting on its own in Punjab: In 2019, the SAD and BJP won two seats each. The BJP’s decision to go solo will surely be tested in a state where the party does not have a significant presence. But it does have a plan to expand its base in Punjab, one that has been in play since 2022. That year, it won over former chief minister Amarinder Singh and senior Congress leader Sunil Jakhar first. Since then, it has gradually inducted more leaders from Punjab. The process has accelerated in recent days. In mid-March, it inducted suspended Congress MP Preneet Kaur. On Tuesday, it was the turn of another sitting Congress MP, Ravneet Bittu, and on Wednesday, the AAP’s Jalandhar MP, Sushil Kumar Rinku, joined the BJP.
While the triggers may be more short-term in nature, there is a deeper fault line visible in the breakdown of SAD-BJP talks. It emerges from the core ideological vision that has shaped the two parties. They were papered over when the parties were together in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), but since 2014, the BJP has taken a hardline stand on its core beliefs, especially the Hindutva view of India. This clashes with the political outlook of the SAD, which is a panthic party formed to protect Sikh interests. And its core vote is the Jat peasantry, which hit the streets when the BJP government introduced new farm laws in 2021. It is this commitment to minority interests that also turned the SAD into a champion of federal politics: The SAD has been part of all federal fronts, from the Janata Party in 1977 to the National and United Fronts in the 1980s and 90s. An anti-Congressism strand influenced the party to see the NDA as a legatee of federal politics that opposed the Congress hegemony. But the BJP and NDA have changed, and federalism surely is not one of their core values now. If the BJP in the past was willing to cede ground to its allies, it now wants to dominate the regions. This was at the root of a break-up with its oldest ally, the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra in 2019, and is one reason why the BJP-Biju Janata Dal alliance did not materialise in Odisha. Its attempt to paper over the differences and clinch seat deals on the eve of elections is not working everywhere, clearly.
