Chandigarh:
After much talk by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of going solo in Punjab, it stands close to reviving its pact with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) barely five months ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections, and a section of the BJP’s Punjab veterans has started to push back.
Senior BJP leader Harjit Singh Grewal has openly acknowledged a divide between the party’s old guard, which opposes a tie-up with the Akalis, and leaders who have joined the BJP from other parties. “I have no information about the alliance. This is a decision to be taken by the party high command,” said Grewal, who is chairman of the National Commission for Minorities.
“Leaders who have come from other parties want it. But the old BJP leaders do not want an alliance,” he added.
READ | Analysis: Punjab Polls: SAD-BJP Alliance Dilemma Ahead of 2027
The two parties are aiming to announce the alliance by the end of November, and seat-sharing talks for the 117 seats are reportedly underway. The SAD parted ways with the BJP in 2020 over the three farm laws that Prime Minister Narendra Modi walked back on after a year-long agitation by farmers.
Grewal said BJP workers who have been with the party for 40-50 years want it to strengthen its own ideological and political base in Punjab rather than depend on an electoral arrangement. “Nationalism is important in Punjab. The ideology of the RSS and BJP must become stronger here. Governments come and go,” he said. Invoking the founder of Sikhism, Grewal said, “Guru Nanak had envisioned Hindustan and carried the idea of Hindustan wherever he travelled.”
He asserted that the BJP is capable of forming a government in Punjab, “as it has done across the country”.
Grewal also took aim at the SAD’s present leadership, and distinguished former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal from the late leader’s son, Sukhbir Singh Badal, and daughter-in-law, Harsimrat Kaur Badal.
“There is a huge difference. Parkash Singh Badal was a university of politics. His political thinking cannot be that of Harsimrat or Sukhbir,” he said. Harsimrat Kaur Badal was a minister in PM Narendra Modi’s cabinet but had resigned when the SAD decided to end ties six years ago.
According to Grewal, the Akali Dal formed governments when it followed Parkash Singh Badal’s political approach but has since been reduced to a party with influence in just four districts. “That is the difference in their thinking,” he said.
Sukhbir, who served as deputy to his father, is seen as the CM face of such an alliance.
Harjeshwar Pal Singh, a history professor and political commentator, told NDTV that Grewal’s view was rooted in a deeper grouse among the BJP’s “original” cadre base.
“BJP workers and leaders have always felt constricted and dependent during their alliance with Akali Dal. However, ever since BJP parted with Akali Dal, they have felt empowered, which can be seen by the rising vote share of BJP since 2020,” he said.
“They apparently feel that they will be marginalised once again now, especially with lots of newcomers from other parties in the BJP. State BJP chief Kewal Singh Dhillon also came in from the Congress. Harjit Grewal was giving expression to this viewpoint among BJP workers,” he added.
Grewal’s remarks come as the BJP and the RSS step up organisational preparations in Punjab. RSS joint general secretary Arun Kumar chaired a meeting of senior Sangh and BJP leaders in Chandigarh on November 13 on electoral preparedness and booth-level organisation. The RSS has asked the BJP to concentrate on nearly 6,000 booths it won in 2022 and another 5,900 where it lost by margins of one to 100 votes.
BJP election strategist CR Patil is overseeing constituency-level assessments across all 117 seats to identify potential candidates and winnable constituencies. These assessments are expected to shape the BJP’s position in seat-sharing talks. The party is seeking substantially more than the 23 seats it contested under its previous alliance with the Akali Dal, with a figure of 40 to 45 being floated.
On the Akali side, Sukhbir Singh Badal has called selected party leaders to Chandigarh. Party sources said the meeting is understood to be linked to possible changes in ticket allocation, as some leaders want to contest from different constituencies.
The Akali Dal is also preparing for a December 8 rally in Moga, its first there in five years. The party is exploring whether to invite a senior BJP leader there. There are, meanwhile, plans to bring senior leader Bibi Jagir Kaur back into the party, delivering another blow to splinter factions of the Akali Dal.
Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann dismissed the electoral impact of the proposed tie-up, saying the alliance would make little difference to Punjab politics. The final decision on the alliance rests with the BJP’s central leadership, Kewal Dhillon recently said, after months of asserting that the party will fight all 117 seats, which was something that Amit Shah said too.
