No Modi magic, BJP draws a blank in Punjab

Saffron party’s vote share increases from 6.6% in last assembly polls to 18.46% in Lok Sabha polls in Punjab this time

Contesting the Lok Sabha polls on its own after 1996 with focus on Hindu factors and Modi “magic”, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has ended up with a duck in Punjab. At the same time, it has got 18.46% votes, almost 5% more as compared to the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

The vote share of the BJP in Punjab is almost 5% more as compared to the Shiromani Akali Dal.

The saffron party increased its vote share almost 12% more as compared to the previous 2022 assembly polls when it contested without its traditional alliance partner SAD and bagged 6.6% votes by contesting 73 seats on its symbol.

The final results were yet to be declared till the filing of this report. The party polled over 24 lakh votes in the state whereas the SAD could touch only 18 lakh. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when the BJP had won two seats of Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur, its vote share was 9.63%.

The biggest solace for the BJP is that its vote share is almost 5% more than that of the SAD which won one seat of Bathinda. The BJP had six Sikh faces this time — Taranjit Singh Sandhu from Amritsar, Preneet Kaur from Patiala, Parampal Kaur from Bathinda, Ravneet Singh Bittu from Ludhiana, Manjeet Singh Manna from Khadoor Sahib and Rana Gurmeet Sodhi from Ferozepur. Barring Sodhi, all are Jat Sikhs.

The BJP candidates stood second in Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Gurdaspur and third in Amritsar, Patiala, Ferozepur, Fatehgarh Sahib and Anandpur Sahib. On all these seats, the saffron party scored more votes than the SAD candidates.

In Amritsar, Patiala and Ferozepur, though the BJP candidates ranked third, they were short by less than 10,000 votes than who stood second. In Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur (BJP 2nd) reserved seats, the outcome has shocked many as these seats are said to be BJP’s traditional stronghold.

The fourth rankers of the BJP were Bathinda candidate Parampal Kaur (ex-IAS officer), daughter-in-law of SAD veteran Sikander Singh Maluka, sufi singer Hans Raj Hans (Faridkot) and Arvind Khanna (Sangrur).

An analysis of the vote pattern on the basis of the available data shows that in its traditional strongholds in urban areas, the BJP won many segments but it lost badly in the rural areas where it has been facing protests from the farming community, especially Sikh voters.