Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday said that it would fight the coming Lok Sabha elections alone in Ouinjab without alying with the BJP.
The head of the BJP’s Punjab unit, Sunil Jakhar, declared in a video statement on X (previously Twitter) that the saffron party will fight the state on its own.

“The decision was taken after speaking to leaders, party workers, and common people. The move will benefit all sections of the society here in Punjab. No one has worked for Punjab the way prime minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre has,” Jakhar said.

It is understood that a number of issues, chief among them the Akali Dal’s demand for a higher proportion of Lok Sabha seats, caused the alliance talks to collapse. Of the thirteen segments, the BJP aimed to secure five, and ideally six.

BJP has already finalised the list of its probable candidates from Punjab. These include Preneet Kaur from Patiala, Avinash Rai Khanna from Anandpur Sahib, Sunil Jakhar from Ludhiana or Ferozepur; Rana Sodhi from Ferozepur in which case Jakhar can be shifted to Ludhiana; Manpreet Badal Bathinda; Taranjit Sandhu Amritsar, Som Prakash Hoshiarpur, Ashwani Sharma Gurdaspur and local leaders from Khadoor Saheb and Faridkot.

In the previous 2019 general elections, Punjab had 13 parliamentary seats. The BJP and SAD, who were running as allies in the former-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), won four of these seats, with two candidates from each party winning. Eight seats were won by the Congress, and one by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

But after the controversial farm laws were introduced by the central government and sparked protests by farmers in northern India, Akali Dal departed the NDA in September 2020.