Asthe Punjab Assembly elections are around the corner, the political parties inthe state are leaving no stone unturned to woo voters. However, the politics ofPunjab at present is in deep chaos. Old ties stand broken. The ruling party iswitnessing high levels of infighting. Farmers, a major vote bank, are extremelyagainst the central government.
Inthis volatile environment, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is gearing up to shock BJPbeyond belief.
Thetwo parties have had an alliance in Punjab from the last 25 years, but SAD inSeptember, 2020 declared to end the alliance in protest against the three FarmLaws and over Centre’s ‘stubborn’ refusal to give statutory legislativeguarantees to protect assured marketing of farmers’ crops at the MSP.
TheSAD then claimed that no matter what, they will never go against the farmers oftheir state. However, on ground, the leaders of the two parties i.e. BJP andSAD share a cordial bond, since the parties were acting as one in theircoalition.
Recently,Former cabinet minister and BJP leader Anil Joshi criticized his own partyleadership over the handling of farmer’s issues. He said that people sitting ontop positions in the party had failed to realize the ground situation and thiswill affect the party’s presence in Punjab.
“Whenwe have lost municipal bodies elections in Punjab badly due to farmer’sprotest, do you think they will even let us contest in assembly elections? Iffarmers have dug their heels at the Delhi border for the last six months, doyou think they will stop the agitation all of a sudden? If you cannot putacross the issue of those who have shown faith in you, do you still think thatyou can survive politics?”Joshi said.
Thetwo-time former MLA from Amritsar, Anil Joshi alleged that BJP failed tounderstand the pain of farmers and it has to pay price for the situation.
Heeven issued an ultimatum that if party doesn't agrees to what the farmers want, he will then expose BJP in such a way that it would benear-impossible for the party to recover from the ensuing damage.
Herecommended that senior leaders in BJP must show sincerity on the farmers’issue if the party wants to remain alive in Punjab politics.
Sourcesin SAD informed that the BJP leaders in the state are looking to switch parties.
InPunjab, BJP contests on 23 seats, and as per information, SAD is arranging tohave these BJP leaders on its party and thus contest all the seats on its own.
Sourcesfurther informed that SAD along with BJP leaders is eyeing on BSP candidates asthe Dalit vote bank in Punjab is about 33%. With both BJP and BSP candidates ontheir side, the SAD will be in a viable position to take on Congress.
Thelocal leaders of BJP are facing two issues, a sort of existential crisis. Thefirst is the intense dislike and wrath the BJP is accruing due to the farmerlaws. The second is the shoddy COVID handling by the ruling party. Thus, itseems prudent on their part to abandon BJP and move to SAD.
SADis sticking to its guns and has proclaimed that even if BJP takes back the farmlaws, the damage is done and they will not go into alliance with them. SADclaims that it will contest Punjab on its own.