BJP is aiming to gain a foothold in Punjab by contesting all thirteen seats in coming parliamentary elections alone, after its former ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) broke away over farm laws in 2020. The party is sparing no effort to increase its numbers by attracting prominent state leaders such as Amarinder Singh, Sunil Jakhar and Manpreet Badal to its fold.
BJP may field its state president Sunil Jakhar from Gurdaspur in place of incumbent MP Sunny Deol. Then a Congress candidate, Jakhar faced a defeat at the hands of BJP candidate Deol in 2019.
It is also speculated that Amarinder Singh may contest from Amritsar or Patiala, but given the fact that his wife Preneet Kaur is an MP from Patiala, the BJP could field her again from Patiala, as she already left Congress in February 2023, and could join the BJP before the announcement of general elections. In this condition, Amarinder Singh will contest from Amritsar. To boost their prospects against the SAD, the party could field Manpreet Singh Badal, cousin of Sukhbir Badal, against either Harshimrat Kaur from Bathinda or Sukhbir Badal from Firozpur constituency.
Former Punjab finance minister Manpreet has never been an MP, and he has differences with the Badal family, the prime reason for his expulsion from SAD in 2010. Also, Som Prakash, the incumbent MP, may be fielded from the Hoshiarpur constituency again. Hardeep Singh Puri, union minister, another big name in the Punjab BJP, may be shifted to Anandpur Sahib constituency. Puri contested from Amritsar in 2019 but came at third position.
Without a poll pact with SAD and encountering resistance from Punjab’s rural areas since the farmers’ protest, the state BJP is making efforts to penetrate the villages. The party intends to kick off a “go to village” campaign soon. Party Insiders reveal that the BJP has directed its local leaders to select a village, reside there for two to three nights, and engage with the residents. These leaders will document their village activities and share photos with the party leadership using the SARL app.
Apart from this, the leaders have been asked to meet those leaders in the villages who have recently lost the elections of panchayat, zila parishad, or block samitis. The leaders have been given the brief to meet sarpanches and panches, or local leaders across the party line, and try to win them over. For nearly 25 years, the saffron party confined itself to urban areas, contesting only 23 urban seats and leaving the rural domain to its former ally SAD. Now gearing up to go solo on all 13 Lok Sabha seats in the upcoming elections, the saffron party is already in campaign mode. In each Assembly constituency, it provides a bike and a monthly fuel allowance to an organiser. Additionally, the party is considering extending this support to organisers in each of the 13 Lok Sabha constituencies.
SAD, on the other hand, is holding Punjab Bachao Yatra on February 1, targeting the Lok Sabha constituencies. This one-month-long yatra is being led by Sukhbir Badal, and through this, he will expose “misconduct” of the earlier Congress and the incumbent AAP government.
Yatra would also highlight the breakdown in law and order and gangster culture. SAD will also take up the issue of large-scale illegal sand mining allegedly being done in connivance with AAP legislators, as well as the alleged protection being given to drug traffickers by AAP legislators.
While the AAP and Congress have decided on a friendly contest in Punjab, the general elections seem to be a multi-cornered contest where each party is showing its dominance in the state. The ruling AAP will have to face heat from the people on its governance; Congress is eyeing anti-incumbency votes, while SAD, the oldest regional party, is facing an existential crisis in the state, and the BJP is emerging as a new force. The state is set to have an interesting contest.