Punjab polls: Stunted BJP and Captain see gains in national security narrative

With a limited footprint in Punjab, the BJP is hoping it would garner some political traction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi expected to spin the narrative around national security during his first rally on Monday in border state Punjab.

Punjab is among the few states where the Modi juggernaut was halted even when the saffron brigade swept the country under Modi’s leadership twice in a row. The political dynamics have undergone a sea change between then and now. Captain Amarinder Singh would match up to, if not neutralize Modi’s narrative centered on national security and the need for robust central leadership.

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The former Congress old warhorse would echo similar sentiments while airing the increasing threat from across the border, even if it meant supporting Modi on the issue. The posturing on the issue of national security helped Congress. Now with Captain fighting the election as a BJP ally, the national security narrative appears largely one-sided.

This juxtaposed with BJP and Captain’s barbs against Congress chief Navjot Sidhu over his ‘Pakistan’ connection, the rhetoric being built around the issue of national security by BJP could offer the NDA-led alliance some electoral gains. The issue cross border infiltration and narco-terrorism have remained central to the debate on national security, even as Punjab chief minister Charanjit Channi has discounted the threat from the border.

It’s unlikely that the BJP and its two allies in Punjab will muster up any significant electoral gains. Both Captain and the BJP are looking to leverage strength given that both have been abandoned, the former by his party and the latter by its senior ally, the Akali Dal.

The BJP is positioning itself around the ‘Modi fame’ to seek a comeback. The saffron party which for decades played second fiddle as a junior alliance partner of the SAD (Badal) in Punjab is now heavily betting on new faces to gain some political advantage for the upcoming election on February 20. As an ally of the Akali Dal, the BJP remained confined to 23 seats out of 117 in Punjab as part of the seat-sharing arrangement. In this election, the party is contesting 65 assembly seats, while Captain’s Punjab Lok Congress is contesting 37 seats.

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