Akalis, on the ropes, keep options open, target both BJP and key INDIA parties

The Akali Dal won just three seats in the 2022 Assembly elections, its lowest-ever tally, down from 15 five years ago. Its performance in the Lok Sabha elections has also not been stellar in the past two parliamentary polls. It won four of Punjab’s 13 Assembly parliamentary constituencies in 2014, with a vote share of 26.3%, while in 2019 its tally fell to two despite a marginal increase in vote share to 27.45%.

Badal on Wednesday told reporters in Sangrur district, “The Akali Dal has several options with it for the coming parliamentary elections. We will join the alliance that, according to us, will benefit Punjab the most. We are conducting our internal assessment to see which alliance will be the best for Punjab because national-level alliances have harmed Punjab in a big way. For instance, the Congress did the maximum harm to Punjab, carried out a genocide too.”

The following day, Badal targeted the BJP and the Congress at a public meeting in Amritsar district’s Baba Bakala town. Hitting out at the BJP, the Akali leader said, “The BJP was behind the attack on the Babri Masjid. It has been several years that the BJP has not received Muslim votes.”

Turning his attention to the Congress, the former deputy chief minister of Punjab said, “Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) came under attack from tanks and cannons. Thousands of our sisters and brothers were subjected to genocide. Our sisters and brothers in different parts of India were dragged out, killed, and looted. Despite that, you voted the Congress to power twice or thrice. What do we call ourselves? Are we at fault or the ones who are outsiders? If someone hits us, we honour that person with a robe. This disease is only in our community. At all other places, all (other communities) stand on their respective footing firmly. Can anyone think of voting for the Congress? We have become enemies of our people.”

The Akali chief was equally critical of the AAP. “The Congress and the AAP only speak against the Akali leadership because they know that if the Sikh community is to be finished, weakened, your power is to be weakened, finish the Akali Dal. They are succeeding in that and we are ending up as their toys.” Badal urged the people to “gather under the Akali Dal flag in the coming parliamentary polls to give the right direction to the state and the community.”

At a core committee meeting of the party in July, at least four leaders had questioned Badal about reports that the Akali Dal might go back to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and that he was likely to be inducted into the Union Cabinet.

Prem Singh Chandumajra said the Akali Dal could consider joining INDIA if it “resolves to strengthen federalism, promises protection to minorities, and honours regional aspirations”. These three issues, the former MP said, had always been the “top priorities of the Akali Dal on which the party always has taken a principled stand”.

Chandumajra said, “It is true that (Sikh) genocide cannot be forgotten, the attack on Darbar Sahib cannot be forgotten, and the Congress cannot be forgiven. But sometimes other priorities emerge. In today’s date, any party or individual does not matter. The three things that matter are more federalism, which is our first priority; protection of the minorities, their religion and culture; and taking care of regional aspirations.”

Former Rajya Sabha MP Balwinder Singh Bhunder of the Akali Dal ruled out joining a national Opposition board that has the Congress and the AAP. “We want a joint Opposition front but with the Congress on board it cannot happen. We advocate a joint Opposition front being a party representing a minority community as the BJP is anti-minority and has turned anti-federalism. We have no differences with regional parties and if the Congress and the AAP are not there in an Opposition alliance, we would want such an alliance. We keep on meeting the leaders of other regional parties,” he told The Indian Express.

Naresh Gujral said it was too early for any alliance talks. “Nothing is closed for us, I can tell that much. Everything is open to us. We are not wedded to the BJP. It is as simple as that.”

Blowing hot and cold

At an event in Patiala’s Devigarh on August 22, organised to protest against the state government’s “apathy” following widespread floods in the state, Badal took a dig at the BJP for trying to portray itself as the “big brother” if an alliance between the two crystallises. The message was that it was not acceptable to the Akali Dal that the BJP would have more say if the two parties got back together.

The speculation about the Akali Dal and the BJP coming back together gained pace earlier this year following the death of Akali patriarch Parkash Singh Badal. Senior BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, paid homage to the former Punjab CM.

The already strained ties took a hit in May after the former allies contested the Jalandhar parliamentary bypoll. Both of them lost the election afterwards the BJP’s solo pitch in Punjab only got stronger. In June, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh reached out to the Akal Dal at a public meeting in Chandigarh. “I do not know why the SAD quit the NDA, but I would like to say that even if someone leaves NDA, we still love them and respect them,” he said a day after the Akalis stayed away from the INDIA bloc’s Patna conclave.

But the tone changed again the following month after Sunil Jakhar took over as the state BJP president and announced his decision to expand the party’s footprint in all 117 Assembly constituencies and 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The Akalis, left miffed, stayed away from both the Opposition’s Bengaluru conclave and the NDA’s meeting.

Meanwhile, state Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring has hit out at the Akali leadership for “attempting to associate with the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) to maintain its existence in the state” to get to the BJP and form a “false image to force its entry in the NDA alliance”.