The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has decided against contesting the four Assembly bypolls in Punjab on November 20 but still finds itself in the centre of the campaign as the BJP looks to “fill the vacuum” left by its former ally.

Last Thursday, taking everyone by surprise, state BJP president Sunil Jakhar called for the Akali Dal’s revival. “As a Punjabi, I believe that the SAD is as important for Punjab as it was in 1920 (when it was formed). I respectfully appeal to our highest religious body, the Shri Akal Takht Sahib, to ensure guilty individuals recognise their mistakes and are appropriately reprimanded. However, it is also essential to safeguard the Panthic party,” he wrote on social media.

On August 30, the Akal Takht declared SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal a “tankhaiya (guilty of violating the Sikh religious code of conduct)” for his government’s mistakes between 2012 and 2017, including a pardon granted to Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a 2007 blasphemy case and the SAD-BJP government’s failure to punish those involved in the 2015 theft and sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib. This prohibited Sukhbir from taking part in political activities and prompted the SAD to sit out the bypolls.

“Someone needs to fill the space (left by the Akali Dal). We have to appeal to all the voters based on the works I did during my tenure as Congress MLA from 2007 to 2017 when Parkash Singh Badal was Chief Minister,” the BJP’s Barnala candidate Kewal Dhillon told The Indian Express.

Dhillon last week posted a video on social media praising Akali Dal stalwart and former Punjab Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal. “Today, I remember former CM Parkash Singh Badal who was a true statesman. He knew the people’s pulse and in the Assembly, he maintained the respect and dignity of all members, unlike today, when MLAs fight like cats and dogs,” he said in the post.

Later, Dhillon said he posted the video as he remembered the former CM after seeing that politics in today’s time had hit a “new low”.

Dhillon is not the sole BJP leader singing praises of the SAD stalwart. In Gidderbaha, the senior Badal’s nephew and BJP leader Manpreet Singh Badal too posted an old video in which his uncle is seen praising him, saying, “Manpreet loves Gidderbaha so much than he can even bring the stars from the skies for the people here.”

Both Dhillon and Manpreet frequently invoke the former Punjab CM in their addresses during rallies in the former SAD strongholds of Barnala and Gidderbaha. Manpreet first won the seat in 1995 on a SAD ticket and retained it subsequently in 1995, 1997, 2002, and 2007. Following differences with the SAD-BJP government, he floated the People’s Party of Punjab in 2011 and later merged it with the Congress.

Manpreet switched over to the BJP in January last year and will take on Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon, who switched over from the SAD to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) after losing to the Congress’ Amrinder Singh Raja Warring by a narrow margin of 1,349 votes in the 2022 Assembly elections. Interestingly, Gidderbaha is also the constituency from where Parkash Singh Badal started his electoral journey in 1967.

Apart from Dhillon, Manpreet and Jakhar, the BJP’s candidates from Chabbewal and Dera Baba Nanak — Ravi Karan Kahlon and Sohan Singh Thandal respectively — are also former SAD leaders.

Kahlon, who contested the 2022 Assembly polls on a SAD ticket and lost by a wafer-thin margin of 466 votes to Congress’ Sukhjinder Randhawa, joined the BJP in May while Thandal, a four-time SAD MLA and former minister, joined the BJP on October 25 and was declared the party candidate the same day.

The AAP was quick to dismiss the BJP and accused it of being hand-in-glove with the SAD. “The Akal Takht has only reprimanded Sukhbir, the others could have contested the bypolls. However, we are not really bothered as zero plus zero equals zero. The people of Punjab will not forget the sacrifices of 750 farmers during the (2020) agitation against farm laws and the anti-farmer statements of the BJP. AAP is strong in all four seats going to the bypolls,” said state spokesperson Neel Garg.

The Congress too echoed the AAP’s views, with the party’s state spokesperson Arshpreet Singh Khadial claiming that the SAD was “forced to break off its alliance” with the BJP over farm laws.

“However, internally they were with the BJP. They did not field candidates against the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls, their councillor voted for the BJP candidate in the Chandigarh mayoral polls and now they are staying away from the bypolls. They want to facilitate the BJP with their ‘little vote bank’. SAD is now history and does not affect us,” he said.

The SAD’s electoral fortunes have been dwindling since the 2017 Assembly polls, where they won 15 of the 117 seats and dropped to three seats five years later. In the Lok Sabha polls too, the party has managed to win only two and one seat in the 2019 and 2024 Lok polls respectively.

Moreover, the Akali Dal is also facing internal strife with a rebel unit — the Sudhaar Lehar — questioning Sukhbir’s leadership after many senior leaders quit the party in July.