With an eye on regaining lost political ground ahead of the Punjab assembly elections, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is exploring an alliance with Akali Dal Waris Punjab De even as it has stepped up outreach to its traditional Dalit support base through a 12-day Sri Guru Ravidas Samman Yatra.
The yatra, launched on August 10 under the party’s “Punjab Sambhalo” campaign, will conclude at Dhaleta village in Phillaur on August 21, where the Jalandhar administration had demolished a wall allegedly constructed illegally around a Guru Ravidas shrine.
But alongside the efforts to reconnect with Dalit voters, the BSP is also weighing a political tie-up with Waris Punjab De ahead of the high-stakes state elections.
BSP Punjab president Avtar Singh Karimpuri said informal talks with Waris Punjab De were underway, but the final decision would be taken by party supremo Mayawati. BSP’s lone MLA, Nachhatar Pal, confirmed that senior leaders of the two parties had recently held meetings.
Pal said the immediate priority was to rebuild the BSP’s organisation from the grassroots, acknowledging that while the party continued to have the support of Dalit voters, it had failed to attract voters from OBC and other communities.
The renewed mobilisation efforts come after a particularly poor electoral showing by the BSP. In the 2022 assembly elections, the party contested 20 seats in alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal but won only one—Nawanshahr.
{{/usCountry}}The renewed mobilisation efforts come after a particularly poor electoral showing by the BSP. In the 2022 assembly elections, the party contested 20 seats in alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal but won only one—Nawanshahr.
{{/usCountry}}The setback is significant as Punjab has the country’s highest proportion of Scheduled Caste population, at around 32%, and is also the birthplace of BSP founder Kanshi Ram. Despite these advantages, the party has steadily lost electoral ground to the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party.
The BSP’s decline is starkly reflected in its vote share. From nearly 16% in 1992, when it won nine Assembly seats, its support declined sharply over the subsequent elections. The party’s vote share fell to around 1.5% in 2017 and increased only marginally to 1.77% in 2022.
Waris Punjab De, meanwhile, is emerging as a new force in Punjab’s Panthic politics under jailed Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh. Despite his incarceration, the radical Sikh leader won with 1.9 lakh votes as an Independent in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, securing 4.04 lakh votes.
An alliance could therefore give the BSP access to a wider social and political footprint while offering Waris Punjab De an opportunity to expand beyond its Panthic support base.