Punjab Politics: Why BJP And Akali Dal May Need Each Other Again
The BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) face a political crossroads in Punjab after failing to secure independent mandates in recent elections. Analysis suggests that despite the BJP's increased vote share in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the two parties may need to reconcile to effectively challenge the state's political landscape.
Why it matters
The potential realignment of these former allies could drastically alter the power balance in Punjab's state assembly elections.
The political fortunes of the BJP and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab has had multiple ups and downs. Once long-time allies, the two parties chose separate paths in the 2022 assembly election and the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The results showed that both have pockets of strength, but neither has yet demonstrated that it can independently get an exclusive winning mandate.The numbers from the two elections underline the problem.BJP: From a voting percentage of 6.6 per cent in 2022 to 18.56 per cent in 2024.In the 2022 Punjab Assembly election, the BJP contested 73 of the state's 117 seats without its traditional alliance with the SAD. It won just two seats - Pathankot and Mukerian - and polled around 6.6 per cent of the vote.The result was a reminder of the BJP's limited organisational and social base in Punjab.
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