- BJP's rout in Punjab
Demoralised Congress has shown remarkable come-back sweeping local-bodies elections in Punjab with a crushing defeat to all other major political parties Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Aam Admi Party (AAP) and Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP). Interestingly, the BJP is listed at number four. Even independents performed well in several constituencies in comparison to SAD, AAP and BJP.
While the Union Cabinet Minister Som Parkash said the farmers' protests certainly had an impact on the MC polls, the Union Agriculture Minister, Narendra Tomar has ruled out any impact of Farmers' protest on the Punjab Local bodies' poll results. He said the BJP was already weak in Punjab and moreover, they had not given a united fight with their erstwhile alliance partner, SAD.
In a way, Mr. Tomar was right that BJP was never a force to reckon with in electoral politics without its alliance partner SAD.
Reverting back to a party that promotes dynastic traditions in public life, this exhibits lack of faith of voters in all other losing political parties. Time has come that losing political parties may realize bitter reality for their failure rather than sticking firmly to their respective stands without realizing the actual mood of voters. But it is evident that farmer-agitation was not the only cause for crushing defeat of BJP because other two parties SAD and AAP were also in support of farmers like the winning Congress. Losing parties should also study if their local root-level workers are trustworthy enough in gaining the confidence of voters.
The BJP has failed in achieving a breakthrough in farmers' protests so far because it has no local leader of good stature who could break the deal in Punjab. BJP's problem is not the farmers' protest per se, but Punjab itself. Interestingly, the party has diverted more energy to win West Bengal, Kerala, or even Jammu and Kashmir, than it has an urge for the Punjab pie.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) ostensibly parted ways with the BJP over the issue of farm laws, but the reality is SAD could have been waiting for the opportunity because BJP, a force to reckon with on the national stage, appeared to be a liability in the state. The Panthic Sikhs have no liking for the BJP and urban Hindu voters have decisively gravitated towards the Congress, having vacillated for long.
In 1947, the Sikh population of Punjab rose from 13% to 33%. The Hindu population increased from 28% to 64%. Punjab was then divided into two regions, Punjabi-speaking and Hindi-speaking.
When in 1966 Punjab was reorganised, the Sikhs constituted a majority with 60% and the Hindus were 37%.
Then there are the caste and class dimensions and all of them interact. The Sikh-Jat-peasant identity is predominantly rural and Hindus-Khatri-trader is urban. The Akali Dal was dominated by the Sikh-Jat-Peasants and the BJP by the Hindu-Khatri-traders. The Congress represented both these competing identities.
