Tie-up delay: SAD in wait-and-watch mode in Punjab

With the announcement of Lok Sabha elections on Saturday, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has adopted a wait-and-watch approach to draw a poll strategy as it is waiting for an alliance with its former ally Bhartiya Janata party (BJP).
The SAD, which fought the 2019 general elections in alliance with the BJP as a part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), managed to win only two seats — Ferozepur and Bathinda — of the total 10 it contested. The BJP, which fought on three seats, won Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur.
The SAD had walked out of the NDA in September 2020, despite being the oldest BJP ally, to protest the Narendra Modi-led government’s now-repealed farm laws over which scores of farm unions held year-long agitation on Delhi’s borders during 2020-21. The farming community has always remained the core support base of the SAD.
According to a senior SAD functionary, the party is already in the poll mode and is holding the “Punjab Bachao Yatra” which is spearheaded by party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal. The announcement of party nominees for the polls can wait can as the elections in Punjab would be held in the last phase on June 1, the party functionary said, not wishing to be named.
“If the alliance with the saffron party had materialised before the imposition of the poll code, we could have expected some announcement for the farmers who are protesting at Khanauri and Shambhu on the Punjab-Haryana borders. But now dynamics have changed. We need to rethink — either to keep waiting for the tie-up with the BJP or go solo,” a senior party leader said on the condition of anonymity.
The SAD is also trying to revive its traditional support base in rural Punjab. In the recent protest too, the SAD has given primacy to the cause of farmers, their core base. The protesting farmers are seeking MSP on all 23 crops as a legal guarantee, assured procurement of crops and waiver of entire debt.
The SAD was on the verge of stitching an alliance with the saffron party but the farmers’ protest, which began on February 13, upset the reconciliation plan.
On its part, the SAD has managed to put its house in order by bringing back senior leaders — former union minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and former SGPC president Bibi Jagir Kaur — into the party fold.
BJP’s Punjab unit president Sunil Jakhar has also been batting for an alliance with the SAD.
Political analyst Jagrup Singh Sekhon, who remained head of the political science department at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, said: If the SAD restitches an alliance with the BJP, it will be answerable to voters to what has changed in three years when it had cut ties with the saffron party. Farmers were protesting then and now also.”
The Akalis are in a dilemma at this stage as the BJP has shortlisted 40 names for the 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state, suggesting that it may go solo.
SAD spokesperson Daljit Singh Cheema said the party is in poll mode and has already started campaigning. “We have asked our cadres and local leaders to be prepared to contest on all 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Alliance with the BJP can happen even now. Imposition of poll code is not a hurdle,” he added.