“Hot” is an appropriate word that describes Punjab of today. It sums up the political and meteorological climate of this border state heading for its assembly polls early next year. Strewn with controversies, big and small, the state has completed the second tier—municipal—of the electoral process that the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) largely won while Congress, threatening political turnover in 2027, finished runners-up. Intriguingly, a substantial section of electors in urban Punjab, still looking for a further change in the governance of a fiscally tormented state, finished third ahead of the once-ruling party, Shiromani Akali Dal, and the Saffron Party, finishing fifth overall—with a Jat Sikh as its new chief, continuing to repeat its resolve of going to the 2027 battle of the ballot all by itself.
The municipal elections, like any other election in the state, were unique in more than one way.
Of the 1977 wards where polls were held, AAP got the lion’s share with 958 wins in its kitty, followed by Congress with 397, Independents with 251, Shiromani Akali Dal with 192, BJP with 172, and BSP with 7.
Of the eight cities that have corporations, AAP wrested power in five—Mohali, Barnala, Batala, Moga, and Bathinda—while BJP finished at the top in Abohar and Congress powered its way to the top in Kapurthala. In Pathankot, the BJP emerged as the single largest party.
Besides the internal bickering and allegations of Arvind Kejriwal-led high command control, AAP has its own set of problems. The recent major rollover of the party MPs—Rajya Sabha members—to the BJP was a major setback that it would try to put behind it in time for the next major political challenge in retaining power in the state in 2027.
Shiromani Akali Dal, fighting to regain its lost glory, drew some consolations as it won control in five of 19 Nagar Panchayats against nine decided in favour of AAP. Congress won only one.
Contesting these urban bodies’ elections on its own, the BJP leadership had been trying to test the waters as an independent political force. Over the years, it tried to build its secular base by roping in several senior Sikh leaders, bureaucrats, and businessmen in its fold. However, the move has not paid any dividends till now.
Just before the urban bodies’ results came, the BJP named former legislator and NRI Kewal Dhillon as its new state chief.
The change of the leadership, instead of putting to rest the existing controversies, including “outsiders” vs. the committed “cadre workers,” has been fueled further with the former chief minister, Capt. Amarinder Singh, differing on the choice of his once confidant, Kewal Singh Dhillon.
Like many other prominent Sikh leaders who left Congress to jump on the BJP bandwagon just before and after the 2022 Assembly elections, Capt. Amarinder Singh and Kewal Dhillon had been the poster boys of a party that remained an alliance partner with the Shiromani Akali Dal.
While Capt. Amarinder Singh still advocates for a BJP-SAD combine to challenge the ruling AAP in the next electoral battle—the assembly polls—his prodigy, Kewal Singh Dhillon, reiterated the resolve of the BJP to fight on “its own.”
Though all appears cool and calm inside the BJP, resentment has been brewing over preferential treatment to “parachutes” or “outsiders” being given instant recognition with the award of party tickets, as happened in the last assembly, parliamentary, and some other by-elections.
It is not the BJP alone fighting its own internal strife and bickerings; all other major political players of the state are in the same mode. They all have a plethora of problems on their plates. Factionalism, leadership crises, indiscipline, defections, and lack of clarity on issues of the common man’s interest are some of them.
SAD has been trying to emerge from its worst organisational crisis since the state’s reorganisation in 1966. Though this oldest regional party had its back to the wall to fight dissensions and factionalism as a sequel to the 1984 Operation Bluestar, it managed to put up a united face under Parkash Singh Badal. However, that veil was quickly lifted after the party suffered a series of crushing defeats in electoral politics.
If the party could put up a semblance of a fight, it was in the just-concluded urban body polls.
Congress, on the other hand, with much better performance in almost all elections, including by-elections held in the state since 2022, refuses to project itself as a single cohesive political outfit to replace the ruling AAP.
The party needs discipline and unified command at the state level for its acceptance as a possible alternative to the present regime in a year. Some of its leaders, including three-time MLA from Jalandhar Cantonment and Olympian Pargat Singh, are trying not to lose focus on the issues facing the state, rocked by drugs, gangsterism, fiscal wreck, and brain drain.
(Prabhjot Singh is a veteran journalist with over three decades of experience of 14 years with Reuters News and 30 years with The Tribune Group, covering a wide spectrum of subjects and stories. He has covered Punjab and Sikh affairs for more than three decades besides covering seven Olympics and several major sporting events and hosting TV shows.)
