Amid speculation over former allies Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) reuniting to mount a challenge to the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the main Opposition Congress in 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the saffron outfit appears determined to make new ground in Punjab politics by going ‘solo’ and then be the Akali Dal’s ‘minor partner’ again.

Punjab BJP chief Ashwani Sharma maintains that the party will fight the war of 2024 polls alone. Besides the BJP’s plan to expand in Punjab where the “Modi wave” failed to have an impact in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the saffron party has many other reasons against making the Akali Dal an ally again.

Union Minister and BJP’s Rajya Sabha member Hardeep Singh Puri recently ruled out the possibility, saying the BJP remained in alliance with the SAD for 25 years but suffered a lot as the Akali Dal failed to come up to the expectations of the people of Punjab.

A senior BJP leader said that alliance with the SAD will be of no use as they will run the things the same way it was in the past. “When we used to make efforts to bring Sikh faces (in BJP) to the fore, the Akali Dal used to oppose it (during the alliance). They used to say the BJP is a party of Hindus. What will you do with Sikh faces when the SAD has Sikh faces? This way they used to make an attempt to make sure the BJP made no ground among the Sikhs,” the BJP leader said, pleading anonymity.

He said as the Akali Dal restricted the saffron party to its quota of 23 of 117 Assembly seats most of which are in urban areas, the BJP could not build its cadre all over the state.

“At present, a lot more Sikhs are associating with the BJP than they were when the party had an alliance with the SAD,” Punjab BJP’s former state general secretary (organisation) Dinesh Kumar told The Statesman.

Another BJP leader said that when in alliance, Akali Dal’s image was BJP’s image and the saffron party virtually had no identity. “BJP didn’t gain anything from the alliance. We lost the leadership, ideology. RSS leaders were killed but no action was taken (by Badal government). But we were questioned on the issues of drugs and alleged corruption linked to the Akali Dal,” he added.

The BJP also hopes to gain from large scale defections in the Congress and Akali Dal with likes of former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh joining the saffron party.

“So from that point of view, the BJP’s face in Punjab is not Hindu face but we have now got a big number of Sikh faces also. Out of the 33 organisational districts in Punjab, we have Sikhs as in-charge in about 20 districts now. That is helping us to gain ground. So in the next Lok Sabha polls in 2024, we will get a good number of votes but our main aim is Assembly polls in 2027,” he added.

Prof Ashutosh Kumar, Chairperson, Department of Political Science, Panjab University, Chandigarh, said the Akali Dal at the moment is not ideal for coalition as it is failing to secure a vote for itself.

“How can the SAD transfer its votes to an alliance partner? The BJP state unit is not in favour of any alliance but it has not been for long. Punjab is the only state where the BJP did not gain from the alliance,” Prof Kumar told The Statesman.

Senior SAD leader Dr Daljeet Singh Cheema, however, said all this talk about SAD-BJP alliance is only in the newspapers. “Neither there was a discussion on this within the party nor this is an issue. When the elections come, the party will discuss,” Dr Cheema told The Statesman.

Since the SAD broke its over two decade old alliance with the BJP in 2021 over now repealed farm laws, performance of both the parties has gone downward with the SAD winning just three seats in 2022 Assembly polls in alliance with the Bahujan Samaj party which won one seat. The BJP won two seats in the 117-member House.

The recent bypoll for Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat saw the SAD finishing third and the BJP fourth with 17.85 per cent and 15.19 per cent votes respectively as compared to the winner AAP (34.05 per cent) and Congress (27.85 per cent).

As the joint vote share of the SAD and BJP (33.04 per cent) was closer to AAP, “personal suggestions” from some SAD as well BJP leaders have been made in the recent past to revive the erstwhile alliance, which helped the SAD-BJP form government in Punjab thrice, for the Lok Sabha elections scheduled for next year.