Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

What it is: The Bharatiya Janata Party was founded on 6 April 1980, after it split from the Janata Party. Its roots are in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, founded in 1951 in collaboration with the RSS, and Wikipedia says the BJP keeps organisational and ideological links with the RSS. Atal Bihari Vajpayee led NDA governments from 1998. Narendra Modi has been Prime Minister since 26 May 2014 and was re-elected in 2019 and, with a coalition, in 2024. Its president is Nitin Nabin.

The Akali alliance: In Punjab the BJP was for decades the junior partner of the Shiromani Akali Dal. After the Akali Dal’s Moga conference of 1996 opened its membership to non-Sikhs, the two parties allied and won the 1997 election. The Tribune credits Parkash Singh Badal’s closeness to Vajpayee and says the alliance gave Punjab stable government after the years of “militancy”, its word. It lasted through the Badal governments of 2007 to 2017 and ended on 26 September 2020, when the Akali Dal left the NDA over the farm bills.

The farm laws: Parliament passed three farm laws in September 2020. Farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, began sit-ins at the Delhi borders on 26 November 2020. On 19 November 2021 Modi announced the laws would be repealed, and both houses passed the repeal on 29 November. Al Jazeera notes that analysts linked the reversal to the coming elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. The Samyukt Kisan Morcha says nearly 700 farmers died during the protest; the government reportedly says it has no record of the deaths.

Key moments

• 18 September 2023: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Canada’s House of Commons that security agencies were pursuing “credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India” and the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. India’s foreign ministry called the allegations “absurd and motivated”.
• June 2024: the BJP won no seat in Punjab but polled about 18.55 per cent of the vote, The Wire reported.
• 28 May 2026: it named Kewal Singh Dhillon, a former Congress MLA from Barnala who joined the BJP in 2022, as Punjab president in place of Sunil Jakhar. India TV reports that analysts see the choice as an effort to project a Sikh face before the 2027 Assembly election.
• 29 August 2026: Giani Harpreet Singh, president of the Akali breakaway Shiromani Akali Dal (Punar Surjit), said his party is open to an alliance with the BJP on a defined agenda and that talks are on. The BJP’s own position was not reported.
• October 2026: AAP alleged that Delhi Police entered Gurdwara Bangla Sahib on 10 October wearing shoes and with heads uncovered, and a delegation of AAP MLAs asked the Akal Takht to act against Union Home Minister Amit Shah. BJP spokesman R.P. Singh disputed the claim and said AAP had politicised the gurdwara.

Where it stands: Since 2020 the BJP has had no long-standing ally in Punjab, and it won no Lok Sabha seat there in 2024. The next Assembly election is due in 2027. The Tribune said in August 2026 that the Damdami Taksal’s chief, Harnam Singh Dhumma, has in recent years been seen as close to the BJP.