Jalandhar: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and BJP may be moving closer after Sukhbir Singh Badal’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and SAD’s subsequent decision to support the women’s reservation and delimitation bills, but any alliance will face a key challenge: addressing apprehensions about the BJP among a section of SAD’s core Sikh voter base.Though Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini has played down alliance prospects, and Sukhbir has avoided a clear response, the shift in SAD’s stand on the two bills has signalled to cadres of both parties that a major step towards a pre-2027 poll tie-up may have been taken.SAD functionary Sikander Singh Maluka, whose son and daughter-in-law are already in the BJP, has openly backed the idea. “The sentiment of the people is that there should be an alliance. This is not the party’s opnion, but my own,” he had said on the day Sukhbir had announced support to the two bills.The BJP, however, has continued to publicly rule out a tie-up. Saini said the BJP’s “real alliance is with the people of Punjab” and asserted that the party would form the govt in the state.The sharper contradiction for SAD lies in its changed position on delimitation. In April, Sukhbir had warned that Punjab would be the “biggest victim” of population-based delimitation and had pointed to the likely advantage for Haryana. After meeting Modi last week, however, SAD backed the Centre’s proposal for a uniform 50% increase in Lok Sabha seats and called for “fair and equitable” delimitation, saying, “This will ensure justice is done to all states.”Cadres of both parties appear to be responding positively to the rapprochement, but Sikh and other Punjabi activists and netizens have questioned SAD’s move. The party had earlier raised serious doubts over the bills, accused the RSS-BJP of interfering in Sikh institutions and alleged that central agencies were working to weaken SAD and render the Sikh community leaderless by targeting Sukhbir. Rival Akali leaders and factions were often labelled “BJP agents”, while even three Sikh high priests involved in the December 2, 2024, Akal Takht pronouncement were accused of hobnobbing with the saffron camp.Apprehensions about the RSS and BJP are not new, but SAD leaders themselves amplified them over the past few years. Amid this narrative, Sikh voters shifted towards Congress in some constituencies in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. SAD leaders would now have to explain the reconciliation of these positions.After SAD announced support for the bills, AAP and Congress supporters, along with Sikh and other Punjabi netizens, began highlighting past statements by Akali leaders. The party is also still dealing with the political fallout of the 2015 sacrilege and police firing incidents.Sikh groups have questioned the BJP over repeated paroles granted to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, whose followers face trial in Bargari and related sacrilege cases, as well as the Centre’s handling of Punjab’s longstanding issues.The Centre-vs-Punjab narrative was once central to SAD’s politics, with Congress cast as the principal adversary. With BJP now ruling at the Centre, both parties will have to explain to their supporters how the reconciliation serves Punjab and Sikh interests.
