Inside Modi-Sukhbir Badal meet: A bid to revive an old alliance

August 7, 2026 Headlinesnews

Chandigarh: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Badal met Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday to discuss the possible revival of an alliance between his party and the BJP for next year’s assembly elections in Punjab.

Akali Dal sources confirmed to ThePrint that a possible coming back together of the former partners was the agenda of the meeting. However, details of the discussion have not yet been made public.

A one-on-one meeting between the two leaders has happened after several years. The Akalis and the BJP remained political partners for over three decades before parting ways in 2020 following the controversy over the three central farm laws.

Sources further said that Badal was called for a meeting by the PM within days of the former having met Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini regarding a possible pre-poll alliance. Badal, along with senior Akali leaders Daljit Singh Cheema and Balwinder Singh Bhundar, had met Saini some days ago asking him to take up the matter—as in-charge of the BJP in Punjab—with the party leadership.

Saini, sources added, was instrumental in getting Badal an audience with the PM on the matter.

In March this year, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had during his rally in Moga ruled out the possibility of any bonding with the Akalis.

Moreover, PM Modi had during his visit to Jalandhar last month attacked the Akalis, along with other opposition parties in his speech. The negative reference to the Akali Dal had almost ruled out the possibility of the two parties coming together before the elections.

‘Anyone can go meet PM, We will contest all seats alone’

Reacting to the meeting, state BJP president Kewal Singh Dhillon said that as far as the Punjab BJP is concerned, it is making preparations to contest all 117 assembly seats in the state and there was no possibility of a tie-up. “Anyone can go and meet the PM. We are going to contest alone on all seats,” he told mediapersons Friday.

On the other hand, some senior BJP leaders including former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh and former state party chief Sunil Jakhar had made it clear that the BJP will benefit electorally if it were to come back with SAD.

During a recent visit to Punjab, BJP president Nitin Nabin had said that a decision regarding the alliance would be taken at an appropriate time.

The seat sharing formula followed before the break-up had the Akalis in the dominant position. For the Lok Sabha elections, Akalis fought 10 of the 13 seats while the BJP fought on 3. In the assembly elections, the BJP fought on 23 seats while the Akalis fought on 94 seats.

After breaking away in 2021, the two parties contested the 2022 Punjab assembly elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections independently. In the assembly elections, the Akalis won three seats and the BJP won two. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP failed to win any seats in the state, while the Akali Dal managed to secure only one.

Sources in the BJP told ThePrint that the state leadership was divided over the decision regarding a tie-up. However, everybody was on the same page that in case the two parties come together for the elections, the BJP will not be the junior partner. Sources added that the Akalis will have to give more or an equal number of seats to the BJP.

Akali Dal sources told ThePrint that issues related to the division of seats would come up only after an in-principle decision of a tie-up is agreed to by the Prime Minister. They said that the question of seat-sharing depended on the winnability of candidates but the Akalis are ready to give almost 35 seats to the BJP for the assembly elections.

AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal reacted to the meeting quoting a popular Bollywood number of the yesteryears. “Na na karte pyaar tumhi se kar baithe…(we kept saying no, no but finally we fell in love).”

“Are the chanda chor (temple donation thief) and beadbi (sacrilege) parties coming together?” he posted on X.

ना ना करते प्यार तुम्ही से कर बैठे।

तो क्या चन्दा चोर पार्टी और बेअदबी पार्टी का गठबंधन हो रहा है?

Sukhbir Singh Badal meets PM Modi at Parliament House; key discussions underway | Punjab – PTC News https://t.co/xlpm2l5UZ8

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) August 7, 2026