Going solo in Punjab after 28 years, BJP banks on Modi, turncoats amid farm unrest, eyes 2027

In the countdown to the Lok Sabha elections in Punjab, a conversation icebreaker these days is a question, “Hawa kedi hai? (Which way is the wind blowing?)”.

Ahead of the state Assembly polls in February 2022, the answer to such a query used to be an emphatic “Jharoo di (for the broom, the AAP’s symbol)”. The AAP went on to sweep the polls, winning 92 of the 117 seats.

This time, the answer often comes as a shrug. But at a bus stop at Majaari, in the Anandpur Sahib parliamentary constituency, Baldev Singh, an elderly man in purple turban from Mojowal village, was quick to say, “Modi di (for Prime Minister Narendra Modi)”. This triggers a blowback from the shopkeeper behind him and a bunch of onlookers, who say in unison, “Ainwi, ehnu kuchh nahin pata (He doesn’t know a thing).” However, Baldev, who had retired from a Sikh light infantry battalion in 1992, and his frowning wife Swaran Kaur stood their ground.

This reflects the poll scene in Punjab, which is witnessing a four- or even a five-cornered contest for the first time in decades. Many people seem to be either clueless about the candidates or vocal for a certain leader or party.

In this backdrop, the BJP, which is contesting its first Lok Sabha polls in the state since 1996 without its erstwhile ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) led by Sukhbir Badal, appears to be upbeat about its prospects despite facing strident protests from the farmer union members, who are “boycotting” its candidates and confronting them in villages.

In the past several Lok Sabha polls, of the state’s 13 seats, the BJP has always fought from three — Hoshiarpur, where it has won in the last two polls; Gurdaspur, which it has bagged five times since 1998; and Amritsar, where it has lost in the last