Split, ‘tankha’ and assassination bid on Sukhbir Badal, Akali Dal saw it all

It was an eventful year in Punjab politics, especially for the Shiromani Akai Dal (SAD) that saw a split, its former chief Sukhbir Singh Badal being declared “tankhaiya” (guilty of violating the Sikh religious code) and an assassination bid on him by Khalistani militant Narayan Singh Chaura at the Golden Temple.

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The political vacuum due to the weakened Akali Dal saw the radicals making their presence felt in the Lok Sabha elections with Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh and Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, son of Indira Gandhi’s assassin Beant Singh, winning from the Khadoor Sahib and Faridkot parliamentary segments.

For the ruling Aam Admi Party, the changing power equations saw senior Hindu leader Aman Arora replacing CM Bhagwant Mann as the Punjab state unit chief, as the Congress after staging a comeback in the Lok Sabha poll by securing seven of the 13 seats, failed to retain the Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak and Chabbewal Assembly seats while snatching the Barnala seat from AAP in the bypoll.

However, cohesion among the party leaders was missing as many aspirants for the tallest leader in the state unit continued to sustain factionalism. The grand old party retained its position as principal Opposition party, as witnessed in the six Assembly byelections followed by panchayat and civic body elections, giving the ruling AAP advantage of winning four of the five Assembly byelections and making their way through in the panchayat and civic body poll.

Through the year, the political churning in the border state saw farmers agitating at Shambhu and Khanauri and tardy paddy procurement assuming political overtones as Congress leadership accused the BJP of attempting a dangerous political cocktail by trying to subdue Punjabis and the dominant agrarian community.

The BJP, entering the political arena in the state after breaking its alliance with the SAD, fought independently its first parliamentary poll to increase its vote share from 9.63 per cent in 2019 to 19.56 per cent in 2024. It, however, failed to win any seat, indicating that mass acceptability of the party in urban and rural areas was still a far cry.

In the absence of the Akali Dal in this year’s byelections, efforts by the saffron party to test the mood of the voters who seldom opted for the Congress or AAP, proved a futile exercise. Opposition parties and even Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar asked for the revival of moderate Akali Dal, largely to keep radicals out of the political domain.

Significantly, the year kept the political parties on their toes as it marked series of elections, right from the Lok Sabha poll to the six Assembly byelections, followed by the high-voltage panchayat and civic body elections towards the fag end of the year.