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Politics of Punjab

Politics in Punjab is principally dominated by a pair of major parties, one is the Shiromani Akali dal Party led by Prakash Singh Badal and the other one is Indian National Congress. Another prominent party is Bahujan Samaj Party particularly in Doaba region. The pre-Independence and post partition dynamics of Punjab politics has been a witness to spate of incidences like India-Pakistan partition, Punjabi Suba movement, Anandpur European Resolution and Operation Bluestar. The events forged their shadow on the Punjab politics and led to the emergence of Sikh dominated party and coalition politics.

Before Independence, the Punjab politics was dominated by ‘Unionist Party’, referred as Zamindara Party. n the 1937 elections, Sir Sikander Hyat Khan was appointed as the premier of Punjab. During his tenure, he entered into a pact with Jinnah, the president of the Muslim League.After the death of Hyat Khan, the Muslim League emerged as the largest single party. However, it could not claim an absolute majority. On February 2, 1946 the Muslim League declared to form the government in a province only if it secured an absolute majority. The Muslim League failed to so. Eventually, on March 21, 1946 a coalition government consisting of the Congress, the Unionist Party and the Akalis were formed.

In 1994, Shiromani Akali dekalitre (United) came into existence uniting as several as six factions of Akali dekalitre within the name of Panthic unity. However, Akali dekalitre (Badal) remained separate. Akali dekalitre (Badal) was split once more on the eve of the 1999 parliamentary elections as Gurcharan Singh Tohra , the president of SGPC rebelled against Badal with the assistance of the then Akla Takht Jathedar. The Sarb Hind Shiromani Akali dekalitre (SHSAD) was fashioned beneath the leadership of Tohra in 1999. It fashioned Associate in Nursing electoral alliance with AD (Mann), AD (Panthic) and AD (Democratic). the various faction fought each the Lok Sabha and therefore the assembly election on an individual basis in1999 and 2002 however performed poorly.

The Congress that had a dismal performance within the 1996, 1998 parliamentary and 1997 assembly elections was ready to build electoral gains in 2002.

The Indian National Congress came into power in once assembly elections in 1992 and therefore the Akali dekalitre in 1997. In 2002, Congress once more marked triumph.

In the 2007, the unhappy won forty eight seats with voters’ turnout of seventy five.42 percent. The SAD-BJP fashioned the government in geographical area by rising victorious in sixty seven seats of the combined, whereas the Indian National Congress won forty four % seats with forty.90 votes. The Independents won 5 seats and therefore the Bahujan Samaj Party got four.13 % of the vote.