The political parties in Punjab are in a state of flux before the 2024 general elections. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the ruling party in the State, seems to be making efforts to establish an identity, while the Congress appears to fear losing its identity. The Shiromani Akali Dal seems to be on a course correction mode, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is trying various ways to make inroads into Punjab.
The AAP is close to completing two years in power in Punjab. The party has been trying to establish a clear identity so that it can expand its presence across the country. It has been riding on the politics of populism even though economists have cautioned that illogical and indiscriminate dolling out of ‘freebies’ could augment the financial distress of the State. The party campaigned for the recently concluded Assembly elections in three States — Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan — by pushing its ‘Punjab governance model’. But the party failed to win a single seat in any of these States, showing that it may need a better strategy to counter the BJP and the Congress. This came as a major setback for the Arvind Kejriwal-led party as the Opposition in Punjab has already been terming the AAP’s governance model as ‘fake’.
The principal Opposition party in Punjab, the Congress, appears to be grappling with a different issue. It is part of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) with the AAP. The central leadership of both these parties have joined hands to take on the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in the general elections.
