JALANDHAR: Notwithstanding the claims of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal), AAP, and BJP, the civic election results have confirmed a vacuum in Punjab’s opposition space.
Even as the Akalis emerge the “biggest” opposition party in these elections, they remain a distant second in the municipal corporations and committees, where the Congress took the lion’s share of seats.
The only solace for the SAD is that other two opposition players— the Aam Aadmi Party and ally-turned-opponent BJP—have performed even worse. It was AAP mainly that damaged the SAD in the 2014 Lok Sabha and 2017 assembly polls. The SAD failed to keep its flock together even in the 2019 parliamentary fight and has since not recovered the ground.