The Bharatiya Janata Party’s choice of appointing Kewal Singh Dhillon, a former Congressman, as the state president may have come as a surprise, but it is definitely a calculated move by the party. Whether it will translate into any significant benefits for the party only time will tell. The BJP definitely had much better choices from within its traditional leadership and those who have joined from the other parties.
Dhillon is a two-time former Congress MLA from Barnala. He was once close to veteran Akali leader and five-time Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. Subsequently, in 2002 when Capt Amarinder Singh became the Chief Minister, Dhillon got close to him. Later he contested the assembly elections from Barnala on Congress ticket and won twice—in 2007 and 2012. However, on both occasions the Congress could not form the government. And when the Congress finally returned to power in 2017 with a thumping majority, Dhillon lost from Barnala.
In 2022, Dhillon lost favours with the Congress. Since his mentor and benefactor Amarinder Singh had already resigned from the party, Dhillon was denied the ticket. Instead the party fielded Manish Bansal, son of senior party leader Pawan Kumar Bansal.
Dhillon immediately resigned from the Congress and joined the BJP in hope that he may be fielded from Barnala. But the BJP had already announced its candidate who it declined to replace. Dhillon still continued with the BJP. He later unsuccessfully contested parliamentary by-election from Sangrur after Bhagwant Mann resigned, as he became the Chief Minister, and the Barnala assembly by-election after the sitting AAP MLA Meet Hayer was elected to the Parliament in 2024 General Elections.
Dhillon may not have strong and powerful credentials like Sunil Jakhar or Ashwani Sharma, nor does he have any oratorical skills, but he does fit into the BJP’s scheme of social engineering and balancing caste equations.
Moreover, the BJP does not necessarily pick up strong and powerful as its leaders. Take the example of Nitin Nabin, who was elevated as party president when nobody outside Bihar knew about him. Dhillon is exactly the repeat of the Nabin experiment. However, unlike Nabin who is relatively younger, Dhillon is already 75, an age at which the BJP normally retires everyone, barring a few exceptions.
The BJP has time and again reiterated that it will be fighting the 2027 assembly elections in Punjab on its own without any alliance. There are still speculations that notwithstanding its public posturing, it may still realign with its old ally Shiromani Akali Dal. This is because the BJP, so far, has been unable to make any inroads into the countryside among the Jatt Sikh community.
Dhillon’s surprise appointment as state president can be seen in this context. He is a known Jatt Sikh face. He has been a successful businessman also. He comes from the politically important Malwa region, which sends more than half of the total 117 MLAs to the state legislature. Whether he will be able to sway any votes will be difficult to guess. But his appointment has sent a clear message to the Jatt Sikh community that the party does value its importance.
Also read: Ex-MLA Kewal Singh Dhillon appointed Punjab BJP chief
Till now a narrative had been built up in Punjab that the BJP was planning to sideline the politically dominant Jatt Sikh community, by building up a non-Jatt alliance of other castes, something it is believed to have done in Haryana. That would not have been a wise thing to do. No party should try to marginalise any community. By appointing a Jatt Sikh state president, the BJP apparently sought to dispel that notion that it would marginalise them and create an alternative.
The BJP indeed had some more Jatt Sikh leaders like Ravneet Singh Bittu and Manpreet Singh Badal, who could have been considered for the position that ultimately went to Dhillon, despite his age. Earlier, an impression had been created that Dhillon was a nominee of former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who is also now in the BJP. However, he categorically made it clear that he had no role in his appointment and he had not even met him since 2021, when he resigned as the Chief Minister.
The BJP obviously has not appointed Dhillon to lead the state for getting votes. The party undoubtedly knows that he is not a vote catcher as there are much better faces than him, Amarinder Singh being one of the most prominent.
The party in any case is contesting in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The party has also launched its campaign song that is themed around Modi. Who is going to be the state president and who not, will certainly not make any difference for the party’s overall performance.
The BJP may possibly also have tried to repeat the West Bengal, Assam and Bihar experiment, where its chief ministers are not original/ traditional party leaders but have come from other parties. In Punjab, the party has not picked up a strong choice. Dhillon is not like Himanta Biswa Sarma, Suvendu Adhikari or Samrat Chaudhary, who are known for their aggressive and firebrand politics.
The BJP will need to explain to its own traditional rank and file as to why someone who had joined the party just four years ago was preferred to be the state president over them.
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