Manpreet Badal: Brick by brick, BJP eats into Congress in Punjab

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By Manish Anand

New Delhi, January 18: A day after the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ moved out of Punjab, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) netted former state Finance Minister and senior Congress leader Manpreet Singh Badal. The BJP’s journey to replace Congress by drafting party’s leaders is gaining momentum, as the saffron outfit gears up for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Badal, who is a nephew of former Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Bada, joined the BJP in the presence of Union Minister Piyush Goyal in the national capital. Badal had earlier in the day resigned from the membership of Congress.

While both the BJP and Congress were reduced to the status of fringe players in Punjab Assembly elections last year, the saffron outfit is nursing hope to take the Narendra Modi cult into the state, which has been unaffected by the Prime Minister’s appeal among the people. The BJP was rejected by the people of Punjab in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, besides the 2017 and 2022 Assembly polls despite the ‘Brand Modi’ being the jugular vein of the saffron outfit.

Badal brings appeal among the Jat Sikh for the BJP. The Jat Sikh constituency has been cold to the appeal of the BJP in Punjab. Badal has been a five terms MLA in Punjab. While he had launched his political career from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), he broke ranks with the party following differences with former state Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal to float his ownj Punjab Peoples Party (PPP), which he later merged with Congress. Badal was Finance Minister of Punjab in the Captain Amarinder Singh-led Council of Ministers. He lost the last Assembly elections with a whopping margin of over 62000 votes at the hands of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Badal promises to bring to the BJP a large number of followers in Bhatinda and surrounding regions of Punjab to give the saffron outfit a foothold among the Jat Sikh. The Punjab project is special to the BJP, for the pride factor since the farmers from the state had forced Modi to come to the national television to announce withdrawal of the three contentious farm laws, while also apologizing. Besides, the AAP, which is aspiring to be the principal challenger to the BJP, sent the mainstream parties out of contention on the lines of Delhi politics.

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About The Author

Manish Anand

Manish Anand is a senior journalist with more than two decades of hardcore reporting on beats such as Prime Minister’s Office, Parliament, BJP, Congress, Planning Commission, NITI Aayog, and scores of Union Ministries.

His past has been with The New Indian Express, The Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle, and The Statesman.

For about 15 years, Manish was also a regular commentator and host for talks on AIR on foreign affairs.

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