Shiromani Akali Dal

The most significant development of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Punjab was the victory of the Congress, making the state an outlier in almost all of India, except for Kerala. Neither the Bharatiya Janata Party’s narrative of national security nor its strong leader could find much traction in the state. The significant loss of the core social constituency’s (read the Sikhs) support of the Shiromani Akali Dal and the decline or almost decimation of the Aam Aadmi Party were important developments of this election.

Regarding the performance of the Shiromani Akali Dal–Bharatiya Janata Party alliance government since February 2007, available trends suggest that there exists a gap between the claims made by the government and the actual work done. The perceptions of the people, based on empirical evidence and ground-level reality, suggest tough times ahead for the ruling alliance.