NEW DELHI: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament on Friday. The meeting has sparked buzz over whether the BJP and the SAD are preparing to turn the page on years of political estrangement ahead of the Punjab assembly elections due early next year.For both the BJP and the SAD, the timing is significant. Once the state’s dominant political combine, the two parties have spent the past several years on the margins of Punjab politics, watching their traditional support base shrink while Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party gradually emerged as the state’s principal political force.The BJP-SAD partnership, which lasted for over two decades, parted ways in September 2020 after the Akali Dal walked out of the NDA, with much credits to Centre’s three farm laws. The legislation triggered massive protests across Punjab and countrywide and became a political flashpoint.However, the PM Modi-led government repealed the laws in 2021, relations between the two allies remained strained.In the 2022 Punjab assembly elections, voters not only rejected the Congress, which was crippled by the Amarinder Singh-Navjot Singh Sidhu power struggle, but also delivered a crushing verdict against both the BJP and the SAD.
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Contesting separately, the BJP won just two seats while the Akali Dal managed only three in the 117-member assembly.Instead, Punjab handed Kejriwal’s AAP a historic mandate. The party stormed to power for the first time in its second attempt, with Bhagwant Mann becoming chief minister, recording a dramatic shift in the Sikh-majority state.Against this backdrop, the Modi-Badal meeting in Parliament assumes greater political significance. While neither side has officially indicated that an alliance is on the cards, the interaction is likely to intensify discussions over whether the estranged partners can rebuild their relationship before Punjab votes next year.
