State scan: For the Akalis in Punjab, the future lies in their past

Badal is also making a renewed pitch for the release of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, convicted in the 1993 Delhi blasts case

By 2027, when Punjab goes to the polls again, Sukhbir Badal will have been out of power for almost a decade, his longest stint in the political wilderness. Moreover, the Akalis, who have ruled the state alongside the Congress in a bipolar polity for decades, are now displaced even from their perch of the principal opposition party in the state for two successive terms.

After a humiliating debacle in the recently concluded elections, Badal sent out a committee across the state. Though composed of MPs, MLAs, and local leaders, the committee formed smaller groups of workers who panned out across the