Jalandhar bypoll a litmus test of BJP’s Sikh outreach
CHANDIGARH: The high-stakes bypoll to the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat scheduled for May 10 is going to be the real test of BJP’s much-hyped Sikh outreach strategy.
As the party has inducted a large number of Sikh leaders from other outfits ever since it geared up to contest the 2022 assembly elections on its own, it made sure to strengthen its outreach efforts towards the community even after the polls.
The BJP had inducted prominent leaders, including former minister Rana Gurmeet Sodhi, former MLA Fateh Jung Bajwa (both from the Congress), former SGPC chief Gurcharan Singh Tohra’s grandson Kanwarveer Singh, former SAD MLA Jagdeep Nakai, Youth Akali Dal leaders Ravipreet Sidhu and Parminder Brar, and retired IAS Jagmohan Raju, much before the last year’s assembly polls. The party had given tickets to at least 26 Sikh candidates for the 73 seats it had contested in alliance with former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s Punjab Lok Congress (PLC).
It all happened just a few months after the BJP had witnessed unprecedented backlash from the Sikh community over three controversial farm laws which were eventually withdrawn on November 20, 2021, on the occasion of birth anniversary of first Sikh master Guru Nanak Dev. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had himself announced the decision to roll back the laws.
Since then, the BJP, through a series of efforts through PM Modi, has been making attempts to win the confidence of Sikh community. The PM had met intellectuals and religious leaders from the Sikh community while the campaigning for the 2022 assembly polls in Punjab was underway. PM Modi had hosted these Sikhs intellectuals at his official residence in the national capital.
On April 21, 2022, he had also released a commemorative coin and postage stamp to mark the 400th Parkash Purb of Guru Tegh Bahadur and the event was celebrated at the Red Fort.
A large number of Sikh leaders have already deserted other parties to join the BJP, including former Congress ministers Balbir Singh Sidhu, Gurpreet Kangar, Manpreet Badal, former Congress MLA Kewal Singh Dhillon, and former Shiromani Akali Dal MLAs Amarpal Singh Bonny Ajnala and Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal.
A Dalit Sikh face, Atwal, son of former Lok Sabha deputy speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal, was chosen as the BJP candidate for Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll within three days of his joining.
While Captain Amarinder later merged his party with the BJP, a prominent Sikh intellectual, former Punjab Police DIG and National Commission for Minorities chairperson, Iqbal Singh Lalpura, has been made member of the parliamentary board -- the highest decisionmaking body of the party.
“The BJP has invested hugely to appease Sikhs. Why this bypoll is going to test that effort is because the party has given prominence to these leaders. They now comprise around 50% of our organisational posts in state and district bodies. The response we get in this bypoll will reveal if the BJP has been able to minimise the animosity with the Sikh community after withdrawal of the farm laws,” says a senior leader of the saffron party from Doaba region.
Such has been the prominence of Sikh leaders in the BJP in recent times that it has also resulted in heartburn among the home-grown leaders, especially those from traditional strongholds of the party from Hindudominated urban segments.
This is for the first time that the BJP is contesting a Lok Sabha election from Jalandhar on its own symbol.
Jalandhar, despite being a reserved segment, has a large number of Sikh voters, including in Jalandhar Cantonment, Nakodar, Shahkot, Phillaur and Kartarpur.
State BJP chief Ashwani Sharma says the party has been getting huge response from all quarters.
“PM Modi shares a special bond with the Sikhs and what he has done for the community has never been done by any other prime minister. As far as this bypoll is concerned, the BJP has been getting love from every section of the society,” he adds.