Old rivals Cong and SAD in disarray in Punjab, as AAP and BJP turn into cohesive units
Jalandhar: Congress and
Shiromani Akali Dal
(SAD), which have dominated the political landscape of Punjab for over six decades and the oldest political parties of the country, are in disarray in the state, even as latest entrant
Aam Aadmi Party
(AAP) and
BJP
, which was once a smaller party in the state, are making the most of being organised.
Just after the results of the Ludhiana West byelection, Punjab Congress leaders are already peeling off the veneer of unity, while SAD is showing little signs of recovering lost ground.
All four parties are ideologically separate. BJP is a right-wing party, AAP now appears as a centrist party displaying flexibility in ideological positioning, Congress is left of the centre, and SAD is panthic. However, while AAP and BJP are acting as cohesive election machines with imaginative ideas, SAD and Congress are still caught in old templates and internal contradictions in the only Sikh-majority state of the country.
If AAP, just after its birth, was an instant hit in Punjab in the 2014 parliamentary elections due to disenchantment among people with the SAD-BJP alliance and Congress, BJP became the biggest party in the country in the 2014 elections, but its space in Punjab was of the fourth player.
Both parties gained immensely from Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement. AAP was, in fact, born out of it, and BJP capitalised on the vacuum created by the movement that discredited Congress.
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Undo
In its initial phase, AAP primarily gained from the disenchantment of a considerable section of the Sikh electorate with SAD leadership by smartly playing the Sikh card and later damaged Congress as well. BJP leaders started aspiring and articulating for a bigger role after 2014, but the demography of Punjab remained its biggest challenge.
After it came into its own in Punjab following the breakup with SAD in 2020, it lost some ground to AAP in the 2022 assembly elections.
However, in the 2024 parliamentary elections, BJP not only recovered that ground, but also ate into Congress's support base among upper-caste Hindus and became the third player in vote share.
SAD and Congress have remained traditional rivals, and the cataclysmic events of 1984 still take the bitterness between the two several notches higher. Sikhs hated Congress the most, and for them, Congress was anything but secular, especially after its leaders and workers carried out the massacre of Nov 1984, and later the perpetrators were protected and patronised by its govts.
The weakening of SAD has given strength to AAP, which the latter has used to damage Congress. Both Congress and AAP have a common constituency — a wide base across communities and castes.
For now, Sikhs remain more apprehensive of BJP, and even its former ally SAD has been accusing it of interference in Sikh institutions and taking their control outside Punjab. This apprehension played a major role in the 2024 parliamentary elections and worked in favour of Congress, contributing to it getting seven out of 13 seats.
For the grand-old party, it is crucial that its old rival, whichever faction, regains strength and that could weaken AAP. Quite a few Congress leaders have openly wished well for SAD in the past months, though not necessarily for electoral reasons but for being the only regional party of the state and representing the Sikhs. BJP state president Sunil Jakhar has also been saying that SAD should stay strong.
If the Sikh political space remains fractured and fluid, Congress also remains riddled with factionalism and other serious challenges. Despite the damage AAP is causing to them, SAD and Congress are being pulled down more by internal contradictions and weaknesses.
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