Following consolidation of the BJP at the national level and having unprecedented success in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Punjab BJP leadership has started aggressive membership drive in the state. It is not only the membership drive which has been accelrated, the state leadership had started claiming that the BJP will be single largest party in the 2022 Punjab Vidhan Sabha polls.
Under the SAD-BJP alliance, the BJP has been contesting 23 Vidhan Sabha seats out of 117 seats and remaining the Akali Dal.
The Akali Dal received a major setback in 2017 Vidhan Sabha election and was decimated to 20 seats only. The party strength in the Vidhan Sabha at present is 17.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Akali Dal could win only two seats of the party president Sukhbir Singh Badal from Ferozepur and other Harsimrat Kaur Badal wife of Sukhbir Singh Badal from Bathinda out of ten seats which it contested.
The BJP won two seats out of three of its quota of Gurdaspur (Sunny Deol) and Hoshiarpur – Reserve (Som Parkash). As a matter of fact, the Akali leadership concentrated only on two family seats it won and the candidates of other seats were left to fend for themselves.
During the 2019 Lok Sabha poll, since Narendra Modi gave the slogan of nationalism and patriotism and the action of Balakot helped the BJP in consolidation of Hindu vote in favour of Modi. The slogan in the Lok Sabha election was vote for Modi and the Akali Dal also adopted this slogan as a result of which, the Akali candidates also got the Hindu votes.
The Akali Dal gave up the Panthic agenda because the Sikhs were unhappy with the Dal due to the incidents of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib at Bargarhi and police firing at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan.
Now when both the parties, BJP and the SAD have launched their respective membership drives, the BJP workers also went to the Lambi assembly constituency of Parkash Singh Badal where the Akali supporters of Badal opposed the same and did not allow the BJP workers to enroll members in that constituency. This was resented by the state leadership of the BJP.
The President of the Punjab unit of BJP Shwait Malik who is member Rajya Sabha too, has claimed that they (BJP) can enroll members for its party anywhere in the Punjab and it not necessary that the BJP will restrict it to the urban areas only. The BJP workers can move to the rural areas as well.
Malik has claimed that the party has already enrolled more than five lakh workers in Punjab as there is lot of excitement among the workers. Moreover, the ruralites are also becoming members of the BJP. Malik maintains that nowhere in the agreement was agreed that the BJP would not enroll members in the rural areas. In fact, the RSS has already expanded its activities in the rural areas of Punjab and has setup more shakhas. So BJP is expanding its wings in the rural areas of Punjab.
With the strengthening of the BJP position politically, the state BJP leadership has started raising the issue of increasing the number seats of the BJP from 23.
Shwait Malik has already hinted that the BJP would seek more seats from the Akali Dal for the 2022 Vidhan Sabha polls. The Akali Dal would resist this move of the BJP and there may be some tension between the two parties on this issue.
Meanwhile the Shiromini Akali Dal is also busy in enrolling members for the Akali Dal in the state.
Dr. Daljeet Singh Cheema, spokesman of the party has claimed that there is a big response from the people for the membership drive of the Akali Dal.
Cheema claimed that there was no dispute between the BJP and the Akali Dal over the membership drive and both parties were free to have membership enrollment in the urban and rural areas.
Cheema also claimed that the Akali Dal was on a revival path and they would bounce back in 2022 Vidhan Sabha polls. He said that the Congress government in Punjab had miserably failed in maintaining law and order in the state and there was a sense of insecurity among the people. Moreover, promises made by the Congress had not been met by it.
According to Cheema they are hopeful of having alliance with the BJP in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha elections as there was agreement between the two parties that they would contest the Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha election together. Elections for the Haryana Vidhan Sabha are due sometime in November and Haryana Vidhan Sabha has strength of 90 members.
Balwinder Singh Bhunder a senior leader of the Akali Dal has been authorized to have talks with the BJP leadership in Haryana. He is also talking to the Haryana Chief Minister. Akali Dal has demanded fifteen Sikh dominated seats in Haryana. BJP is in a strong position in Haryana. Only time will tell how many seats are left for the Akali Dal.
Meanwhile the Congress in Punjab is in tatters as no decision has been taken on the resignation of Sunil Jakhar who resigned after his defeat at Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat. His resignation is pending with the Congress High Command and the bickerings among the leaders are growing particularly the Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Partap Singh Bajwa are at loggerheads for long and Bajwa continues to make attack on the Chief Minister whenever he finds an opportunity. The cadres of the Congress are also not organized fully. The ministers of the Punjab are busy in strengthening their own positions and they do not bother about the Congress workers.
K S Chawla is a senior journalist based at Ludhiana.
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Published on August 21, 2019.
