Eminent Sikh leaders, academicians join BJP in Punjab

The BJP may not be a ‘powerful’ stakeholder in Punjab politics, but the Hindu voters cannot be ignored. Shiromani Akali Dal of Badals is trying to make a deeper penetration among Hindu and OBC support bases in Patiala, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, and Ferozepur regions.

Over the previous 40 years, Congress has allegedly ignored the concerns of OBC leaders among Hindus and Sikhs.

The OBC community makes about 34 percent vote share in the state. Akalis are already in parleys with Hindu leaders in Malwa and Deoba regions among both Congress and AAP leaders.

Charanjit Singh Channi, son of Congress stalwart Dilbagh Singh, had quit the grand old party in 2016.

There has been a severe opposition to agrarian laws – though a motivated one – by Punjab farmers and others for months. But the saffron party has been making initial moves to make an impact politically, and this time they will do so without the support of Akalis.

The Akali Dal, which had been a strong BJP ally since the 1990s, walked out of the NDA last year over the farm laws.

Subhash Sharma, general secretary of Punjab BJP, said that those who joined are the fresh faces of the Sikh community. “This will break the perception that the people of Punjab or Sikhs are upset with the BJP.”

Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has said that the social standing of the new entrants will help in removing misconceptions in the state.

These new entrants may not be known political faces, but they are ‘influencers and achievers’.

Punjab BJP president Ashwani Sharma, general secretary in-charge Dushyant Gautam, and Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat were present when the newcomers entered the saffron party.

They include former president of All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) Harinder Singh Kahlon, advocate Jagmohan Singh Saini, who is also the president of Farmers’ Intellectual Front (Patiala), advocate Nirmal Singh from Mohali, Kuldeep Singh Kahlon (former AISSF leader) from Gurdaspur, former Vice-Chancellor of Guru Kashi University Jaswinder Singh Dhillon, and Col Jaibans Singh from Patiala.

The message of BJP for the Punjab elections is clear — Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done a lot for Punjab and the Sikh community.

The saffron party may also be keen to tie up with a breakaway group or “high-profile” names from other parties.

Following the SAD move to stitch an alliance with the BSP, the caste equations have changed in the state.

The Jat Sikhs making about 18 percent of the state’s voters have dominated the political and social scenes. Dalits do not vote en-bloc despite making about 32-34 percent of voters.

Since 1966, Punjab has almost always had a chief minister from the Jat Sikh community—except Giani Zail Singh, who was an OBC Sikh.

Since December 2020, few BJP leaders have been facing ‘resistance’ because of Congress-sponsored protests on the ground lately in remote areas.

Home Minister Amit Shah, party chief JP Nadda and Punjab leaders have already met and discussed things.

The BJP contested 23 seats in alliance with Akali Dal in 2017 and won three with a vote share of around 29 percent in the seats it contested. However, across Punjab, the vote share of the BJP was only 5.4 percent.

Some argue no party in Indian politics is as much realistic as the BJP. Thus, the whispering has been that the saffron party leaders have been ‘interacting’ with S S Dhindsa, a senior Akali Dal leader who had quit the Badals-led party.

After the resignation of Harsimrat Kaur, BJP also tried to reach out to another Akali dissident R. S. Brahmpura, who had floated Akali Dal (Taksali).

The BJP-led regime in the center also had played a soft ‘outreach’ politics when it awarded the veteran Dhindsa with Padma Bhushan in 2019.

Dhindsa floated Akali Dal (Sanyukt) along with Ranjit Singh Brahmpura in May this year after the dissolution of SAD (Democratic) and SAD (Taksali). The new party is now keen to give it a shot alone as well.

In 2017 assembly polls, the state-based Lok Insaf Party had won two seats. Congress won 77 Aam Aadmi Party – 20 and Shiromani Akali Dal – 15.