Analysis: Punjab BJP Strategy On Congress Imports Squeezing Out Veterans

BJP's poll strategy to woo rural Punjab voters has backfired because the party preferred turncoat Jat leaders over stalwart Hindu leaders. Over a dozen senior party leaders, who spent years building the cadre and faced violence during the farmer protests, have internally revolted against the party high command.Organisational restructuring has triggered deep internal friction, highlighting an underlying tension between the party's entrenched traditional cadre and a central leadership strategy that increasingly favours political turncoats.The first turncoat to get the plum post was Sunil Jakhar, a former Congress chief who, on July 11, 2023, became Punjab BJP chief, replacing party veteran Ashwani Sharma. Sharma was later made working president, but the party sidelined both Hindu leaders Jakhar and Sharma by appointing a Jat Sikh, Kewal Dhillon, as state president on May 28, 2026.Dhillon is another high-profile political defector from the Congress.