The Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal (Badal) has lost its cred­i­bil­ity in Pun­jab af­ter the Bar­gari sac­ri­lege and Be­hbal Kalan po­lice killings. The Sikhs in Pun­jab voted Con­gress in an act of re­venge against the Badals.  WSN colum­nist Prab­h­dial Singh Saini re­flects upon the pos­si­bil­i­ties of po­lit­i­cal change in Pun­jab and points out that it would be in­ter­est­ing to see who will Naren­dra Modi and Amit Shah bless -overtly the Akalis or covertly Amarinder Singh?

In its up­beat mood, should the Bhar­tiya Janta Party break its al­liance with the Badal Dal, in the com­ing times, the ur­ban pop­u­la­tion in Pun­jab will shift to­wards the BJP. The equa­tion may change overnight.

Notwith­stand­ing the in­duc­tion of one min­is­ter from the Akali Dal and one from the BJP in Pun­jab in the Naren­dra Modi cab­i­net, the BJP is al­ready eye­ing this and its think­ing min­ions are work­ing on this on the draw­ing board.

The per­for­mance of the Pun­jab De­mo­c­ra­tic Al­liance (PDA) and of AAP has been pretty dis­mal. The AAP could have been an al­ter­na­tive but it is al­most fin­ished in Pun­jab due to adamant at­ti­tude of Ke­jri­wal and other Delhi-based lead­ers. Hon­esty alone does not win you elec­toral bat­tles.

In 2022 as­sem­bly elec­tions, the BJP may wipe out Con­gress from Pun­jab. The writ­ing is on the wall. Al­ready the RSS has made in­roads into many Sikh in­sti­tu­tions. As the Badal Dal stands weak­ened and new Sikh lead­ers wait­ing in the wings to join the BJP, there is no stop­ping them.

Many known names are likely to be­come BJP or non-BJP-but-BJP-blessed-faces in Pun­jab, the first taste of which are likely to get in the SGPC elec­tions, likely to be held be­fore the As­sem­bly polls.

If Pun­jab CM Amarinder Singh pun­ishes the guilty of Be­hbal Kalan and Bar­gari Kalan,  Sikhs may stay aligned with the  Con­gress. There are in­di­ca­tions of this in the charge sheet filed by the SIT, but still, we have to keep our fin­gers crossed till the fi­nal cur­tains are drawn.

The peo­ple in Pun­jab are now in a mood to sup­port that party with full zeal and spirit, which will fin­ish the Badals and rein­vig­o­rate the de­mands and in­ter­ests of the peo­ple of the state. It may be the Con­gress or the BJP. There is some space for a third party but who will that be, de­pends upon many per­mu­ta­tions and com­bi­na­tions of var­i­ous groups.

With BJP in power at the cen­tre and his pro-BJP stance, will the Pun­jab CM have the courage to do that? It ap­pears that Amarinder Singh to is also wait­ing for a sig­nal from Modi. Most prob­a­bly, Modi will get the Badals fin­ished po­lit­i­cally only through Capt. Am­rinder.

SGPC Elec­tions, when­ever they hap­pen, will be a good in­di­ca­tor of what the po­lit­i­cal scene will be in the com­ing times.