Akali Dal has been the oldest NDA ally. It has stood behind whoever the coalition had chosen to lead. Its party chief, Sukhbir Singh Badal, was first to endorse Narendra Modi as prime ministerial candidate. When Amit Shah was to file his nomination papers, Akali patriarch Parkash Singh Badal travelled to Ahmedabad in 2019 to express his support.
The Akali Dal has been troubled by the farmers' growing opposition to the three agriculture bills. But what precipitated matters was the fact that Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh accused the Akalis of betraying the farmers for supporting the NDA. Singh even threatened to approach Supreme Court once the bills are passed. When Sukhbir Badal announced that his wife and Bathinda MP, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, will pull out of the cabinet over the passing of bills, he had his local audience in mind. With Harsimrat's resignation, Akali Dal has sought to regain some of the space lost to the Congress in the state.
Akali Dal's sacrifice has put pressure on another NDA ally, JJP (Jannayak Janta Party), which shares power with BJP in Haryana. JJP chief and current Haryana Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala has so far been maintaining a cautious approach. Badal had earlier met Chautala to draw a common strategy, but, for Chautala, resigning from the post— his first ever public office—was too a big price to pay. He was a Lok Sabha MP in 2014.
The Congress which is the principal opposition party in Haryana, took a jibe at Chautala for sticking to his seat rather that fight for the cause of the farmers.
“I want to congratulate Harsimrat Singh Badal for resigning in support of farmers. I would warn Dushyant Chautala not to support BJP on these anti-farmer bills, otherwise he will suffer big defeat in future. He should support farmers,” senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, said.
After Harsimrat's resignation, the farmer agitation is set to escalate, but the Union government is moving ahead with the bills undeterred.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asserted that the new bills will free the farmers and enhance their income. The BJP and the NDA government has been trying to explain to the farmers that the APMC Act, mandis, and MSP will continue to stay in the states. Only the farmers have been offered an additional route to sell their produce at a higher price.
Akali Dal's tactical exit from the cabinet is a setback for the NDA, after Shiv Sena, another old BJP ally, left the grouping over power sharing in Maharashtra. The LJP, too, is playing hardball over seat sharing talks in Bihar.
In Punjab, the elections are due in 2022. Both Akali Dal and the BJP have had the alliance keeping in mind the “national interests”. Despite local units hitting out at each other, their national leadership had firmly held the alliance, as both have different constituencies. Akalis have base among the Sikh peasantry in rural areas, while the urban Hindu voters have been BJP's mainstay.
Sukhbir Badal, over the years, had tried to transform his party into a more secular one, focusing on development issues and had fielded many Hindu candidates in elections. It had played the role of ‘big brother’ in the state with the BJP. The absence of a Sikh face in BJP will hamper saffron party's outreach. Navjot Singh Sidhu was a known leader in the BJP till he quit to join the Congress.
Both sides have been silent over their alliance in Punjab as it is likely to continue. Agriculture and farmers have always been sensitive issues in the agrarian states. The Akalis have tried to seize the narrative for now by sacrificing the cabinet berth, which Harsimrat gave up for her husband's political future in the state.
