Punjab election 2027: Bhagwant Mann will lose Dhuri, says Sukhbir as BKU (Kadian) backs SAD

CHANDIGARH. On the same day three AAP legislators crossed over to the BJP, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) picked up a farmer ally. The Bharatiya Kisan Union (Kadian) on Monday announced unconditional support for the Akalis in the 2027 Punjab assembly elections. It accused the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of going back on a written agreement with the union.

Sharing the stage with the union, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal predicted a “complete exodus” from AAP. He said Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann would lose his own seat, Dhuri.

Union president Harmeet Singh Kadian made the announcement at the SAD head office here. The union’s district presidents were with him.

‘Only SAD has a pro-farmer agenda’

Kadian said the union had spent three months on the decision and had approached every party. “We realised that all of them, except the SAD, do not have any pro-farmer policy agenda,” he said.

He said both the AAP government and the Congress government before it had an “abysmal” record on farmers. He alleged that the AAP government arrested farmers and protected its own leaders who, he said, stole trolleys belonging to union workers. He added that farmers hit by last year’s floods, and by hailstorms more than six months ago, have still not received the compensation they were promised.

“A regional party like the SAD, which upholds Sri Akal Takht Sahib, can alone safeguard the interests of the farmers of Punjab,” Kadian said. He urged all pro-Punjab farmer groups to back the Akalis.

The union has a history of taking on the AAP government. In August, Kadian accused the state government of failing to keep promises made to farmer unions and joined a farmers’ protest in Chandigarh.

Union’s demands

The union gave Badal a memorandum listing its demands:

– Open the Attari-Wagah border for trade with Central Asian countries

– Push crop diversification and food processing

– Extend minimum support price (MSP) to more crops besides wheat and paddy

– Provide crop insurance

– Stop outsiders from buying land in Punjab

Badal promised to take up all these issues once the SAD forms the government in 2027. He appealed to every kisan and mazdoor (farmer and labour) group to support the party. He also said no other party had done as much for farmers as the SAD.

Badal pointed to the Kadian family’s old ties with the Akalis. Kadian’s father, Partap Singh Kadian, who founded the union, was elected as an SAD legislator in 1968.

‘AAP MLAs feel betrayed’

Badal’s exodus prediction came as AAP lost three MLAs in two days. Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra and Chetan Singh Jouramajra joined the BJP at the party’s New Delhi headquarters on Monday. Pathanmajra, the Sanaur MLA, and Jouramajra, the Samana MLA, quit AAP on Sunday. Kunwar Vijay Pratap, a former IPS officer who represents Amritsar North, handed his resignation from the assembly to Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan on Monday.

Pathanmajra and Jouramajra had been left out of the first list of 40 AAP candidates for 2027, which the party released on October 31. AAP has started moving to seek their disqualification.

“You will witness a complete exodus from AAP. All AAP legislators feel betrayed by their own party. They know Punjabis have started to hate the party,” Badal said.

He added that once the SAD comes to power, everyone who “looted” the state and its resources would be brought to justice.

Silent on BJP tie-up

Badal would not give a timeline for a possible alliance with the BJP. He told reporters, “Main kaun sa Pandit hoon. You will get to know in a few days.” He attacked both the Congress and AAP but did not mention the BJP.

The farmer union’s backing makes the alliance question sharper. The SAD walked out of the NDA in 2020 over the three farm laws, which have since been repealed. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said the NDA will form Punjab’s next government, while BJP state chief Kewal Singh Dhillon says his party will contest all 117 seats alone.