Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the party that left NDA over the farm laws a few months ago, has been wiped out of Punjab in the 2020 local elections. As per reports, Congress won 7 – Moga, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Abohar, Pathankot, Batala, and Bathinda – out of 8 municipal corporation elections in the state. The grand old party won 1,399 of the 2,165 municipal wards – the highest ever tally posted by the party in the last few decades.
SAD left NDA in anticipation that it will help the party return to power in the 2022 assembly elections. But if the local elections are any indication, the flip-flop of the party has only harmed its electability. SAD had initially supported the three farm laws, but when the movement was built against the laws among the Sikh population of Punjab, the party backtracked and quit NDA.
Congress grew in the state at the cost of Shiromani Akali Dal, which suffered the most humiliating defeat in decades in this election. In the last few years, SAD has been witnessing a secular decline in the state.
The party had a considerable presence in the state even before independence, but it became a serious electoral contender only in the mid-1990s when it dropped the Sikh radicalism agenda to adopt a secular line and came in alliance with the BJP.
In 1997, just a year after adopting the secular agenda, the party came to power in alliance with the BJP, and Prakash Singh Badal, the father of current party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, became the Chief Minister. In 2002 it lost power to Amarinder Singh but the Badals again came to power in 2007 and Prakash Singh Badal remained on CM chair till 2017 when it recorded the worst performance in the last few decades in 2017 assembly elections.
The rampant corruption, drug culture, misgovernance in the 10 years of SAD-BJP alliance rule led to the downfall of the party. People of Punjab were so fed up with SAD that AAP won 20 seats out of 117 in the last assembly election. AAP, a newcomer which was fighting the assembly elections for the first time on the agenda of appeal to Khalistan supporters and corruption-free governance, won 23.7 per cent votes and emerged as the second-largest party in terms of vote percentage as well as seats.
The SAD-BJP alliance could win only 18 (SAD won 15 out of 94) seats and just 11.2 per cent of the vote. With this, it was pushed to third place in the state. The humiliating loss in the local elections re-emphasizes the fact that the party which survives on corruption, hooliganism, and misgovernance definitely has no chance to come to power at a time when India has witnessed the most transparent governance at the centre as well as in many states- by BJP as well as many regional parties like BJD, TRS- in the last few years.
Akali Dal continued its miserable run in the Lok Sabha polls last year and won only two seats, despite the fact that the Modi wave swept across the country and even the most unwinnable candidates secured victory in many constituencies. Despite the bad performance, the party still secured a cabinet berth in the Modi cabinet. After quitting the NDA, the party has no power at the center and is being wiped out of the state, too.
The Badal family-led SAD left NDA in order to consolidate its presence in the state, but, given the results of the 2020 local elections, it is very much evident that it has no future left in the assembly and local elections either. The Hindus of Punjab, who used to vote SAD-BJP alliance due to their affection for the saffron party, have moved to Congress because it has the best chance to defeat SAD, which is taking a radical turn since it left the NDA.