Amid the buzz over a possible realignment between estranged allies Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the BJP, a meeting reportedly took place between senior BJP leader CR Patil, known for his micro-management skills, and SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal in New Delhi earlier this week. Neither party has confirmed the meeting.
However, leaders of the breakaway Shiromani Akali Dal (Punar Surjit) faction are now being wooed to join a potential broader alliance between the SAD and BJP in Punjab.
Patil on Saturday met the BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab, Vikramjit Singh Sahney. Sources said senior leaders of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Punar Surjit) faction, including Bibi Jagir Kaur, Gurpartap Singh Wadala, Prem Singh Chandumajra and Gobind Singh Longowal, among others, are being engaged on the possibility of contesting the 2027 Assembly elections as part of a larger SAD-BJP alliance in the state.
There is, however, no clarity yet on how or under what arrangement they would contest. One possibility is that they could contest on the SAD’s traditional ‘weighing scale’ symbol, given that they quit the Sukhbir Badal-led SAD on August 11 last year.
It is learnt that the ongoing alliance talks could also factor in the role of 10 Akali stalwarts who deserted Sukhbir Badal last year. All these leaders were part of the SAD during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, when the party was ahead of the BJP in nearly 49 Assembly segments, while the BJP led the SAD in the remaining seats.
Apart from the leaders of the Punar Surjit faction, another prominent leader who left the SAD and joined the faction, but later moved to Waris Punjab De, is Manpreet Singh Ayali. The other leaders who are no longer with the SAD include Justice Nirmal Singh, Harmeet Singh Sandhu, Iqbal Singh Jhundan, Hardeep Singh Dhillon, Guriqbal Singh Mahal and Sukhwinder Sukhi.
While the BJP is reportedly pushing for any pre-poll alliance to be based primarily on the results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the SAD wants the average outcomes of the last three elections — the 2002 Assembly election, the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the recent rural and urban local body elections — to be taken into account.
The main argument driving the case for a SAD-BJP pre-poll alliance is their combined vote share of 31 per cent in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections — 18.5 per cent for the BJP and 13.5 per cent for the SAD.
Officially, however, the BJP has maintained that it will contest all 117 Assembly seats in Punjab.
Sahney was part of a seven-member Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha bloc that merged with the BJP in April this year. He is learnt to have discussed the prevailing political situation in Punjab with Patil, who has been informally tasked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with overseeing election management in the state.
Saturday’s meeting came days after Patil met Badal to discuss the broad contours of a possible pre-poll alliance in Punjab.
Patil’s appointment as Punjab election in-charge is yet to be officially notified, but he has already begun overseeing the party’s poll management in the state and meeting key political players. He is yet to announce when he will visit Punjab.
A four-time Lok Sabha MP from Navsari, Patil is expected to play a key role in the BJP’s Punjab strategy. He is also Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal point man for the Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency and is known for his organisational and election-management skills, as well as for delivering victories by significant margins.
