The saffron push in Punjab

In the May heat in the land of five rivers, temperatures climb to the mid-40s. In Amritsar, home to Sikhism’s holiest shrine, known worldwide as the Golden Temple, and as the Harmandir Sahib to believers, the BJP has fielded Taranjit Singh Sandhu, a former diplomat and a Jat Sikh, from the community of farmers that form 22% of the State’s population. Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar says, “The issues of the agitating farmers can only be addressed by the next BJP government at the Centre.” At a public rally in Attari village, situated on the India-Pakistan border, attended by a few hundred people, Sandhu entreats people not to see their local problems in isolation, but to think of solving them at the national level. After parting ways with the SAD, the BJP inducted several Sikhs into the party, including former Chief Minister and Congress leader Amarinder Singh in 2022, and former Congress leader Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi in 2021. Surinder Singh, an assistant professor of Political Science at Panjab University’s Rural Centre at Kauni village, Muktsar district, points out that for the BJP to secure the support of the community, especially the Jat Sikhs and other landholding castes, its leaders will have to go beyond gurdwara visits.