CHANDIGARH — A mutiny is brewing inside the Bharatiya Janata Party's Punjab unit over attempts to resurrect its snapped alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal.
Veterans have dug their heels in.
Barely five months before the state plunges into full campaign mode for the 2027 Assembly elections, the push by turncoat inductees to formalize a reunion by late November has hit a wall of internal resistance. Harjit Singh Grewal, a veteran BJP leader and chairman of the National Commission for Minorities, laid bare the ideological split on Wednesday, drawing a sharp battle line between lifelong cadres and newly joined politicians.
"Leaders who have come from other parties want it," Grewal stated plainly. "But the old BJP leaders do not want an alliance." He acknowledged that the party high command holds final authority, yet insisted that workers who spent four to five decades building the party's cadre reject serving as a junior partner once again.
Nationalism is important in Punjab. The ideology of the RSS and BJP must become stronger here. Governments come and go. Guru Nanak had envisioned Hindustan and carried the idea of Hindustan wherever he travelled.
Harjit Singh Grewal, Chairman, National Commission for Minorities
The Akali Dal walked out of the National Democratic Alliance in 2020 following the contentious farm laws, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi later repealed after a year-long agitation. Now, talks to stitch the partnership back together across Punjab's 117 assembly seats have reignited old resentments. At the heart of the resistance sits the current Akali leadership.
Grewal took direct aim at SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal and former Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, contrasting them against the late patriarch Parkash Singh Badal.
"There is a huge difference," Grewal said. "Parkash Singh Badal was a university of politics. His political thinking cannot be that of Harsimrat or Sukhbir."
He argued that while the senior Badal built expansive coalitions that captured state power, the Akali Dal under Sukhbir has shrunk into a regional outfit confined to just four districts. Yet Sukhbir remains positioned as the prospective chief ministerial face of the joint platform—a prospect that rankles the BJP rank and file.
Political commentator and history professor Harjeshwar Pal Singh observed that this resistance stems from years of organizational claustrophobia under the regional ally. "BJP workers and leaders have always felt constricted and dependent during their alliance with Akali Dal," Singh said. He noted that the party's vote share ticked upward after the split in 2020, fueling cadre confidence. "They apparently feel that they will be marginalised once again now, especially with lots of newcomers from other parties in the BJP. State BJP chief Kewal Singh Dhillon also came in from the Congress. Harjit Grewal was giving expression to this viewpoint among BJP workers."
The alliance math has fundamentally shifted. In their previous partnership, the BJP contested merely 23 seats, leaving the remaining 94 to the Akalis. This time, BJP election strategist CR Patil is running micro-level constituency audits across all 117 seats to identify viable candidates, with the party floating an aggressive claim of 40 to 45 seats.
| Alliance Metric | Historic Arrangement | Proposed 2027 Reconfiguration |
|---|---|---|
| Total Assembly Seats | 117 | 117 |
| BJP Seat Quota | 23 seats | 40 to 45 seats demanded |
| SAD Seat Quota | 94 seats | 72 to 77 seats estimated |
| Targeted Core Booths | Unaudited joint pools | 6,000 won in 2022; 5,900 close losses (1–100 margin) |
| Proposed Pact Timeline |
Simultaneously, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has stepped into direct operational planning. RSS joint general secretary Arun Kumar convened a closed-door strategy session in Chandigarh on November 13 with senior Sangh and party organizers. Kumar ordered the BJP to zero in on roughly 6,000 polling booths it carried in 2022, along with another 5,900 booths where the party lost by narrow margins between one and 100 votes.
Akali leadership is already repositioning its board. Sukhbir Singh Badal summoned key lieutenants to Chandigarh this week to iron out internal ticket disputes and ward off constituency rebellions. In a parallel maneuver to isolate splinter groups, the Akalis are preparing to bring veteran leader Bibi Jagir Kaur back into the fold ahead of a planned rally in Moga on December 8—the party's first mass gathering in the district in five years.
Akali managers are currently debating whether to invite senior national BJP leaders onto the Moga stage to seal the reconciliation.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann scoffed at the maneuvers, declaring that an Akali-BJP re-entry would fail to shift voter sentiment on the ground. The final verdict on the alliance now rests squarely with the BJP parliamentary board and central leadership in New Delhi.
| Severed in 2020 |
| Target finalization by end of November |