A shifting political arithmetic in Punjab

Buoyed by electoral victories in West Bengal, Assam, and Puducherry, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seems eager to carry that momentum into Punjab, treating it as the next domino in a long line waiting to fall. In a bold move, it is readying itself to go solo for the Assembly polls in Punjab, due in 2027.

The BJP has been present in Punjab since the country’s independence. People know what it stands for, what it has done and what it has not done. Before 1992, when the BJP (earlier known as the Bharatiya Jana Sangh) was fighting alone, it secured, on average, 6%-7% of the vote share during the Assembly elections. Later, when the BJP entered into an alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in 1997, its vote share went up a tad to around 8%, according to the book Electoral Politics in Punjab. In 2022, the BJP contested the Assembly elections in alliance with the Punjab Lok Congress and got 6.6% of the vote.