Governments & Politics of Punjab

Punjab's Governments & Politics

Traditionally the Akali Dal and the Congress have been the two parties that have been in power in the Punjab state of India.

In the early years after independence Congress's Pratap Singh Kairon dominated Punjab as a C.M. He also did most of the infrastructure building tha brought Punjab it's prosperity as all the fabled irrigation system was in Pakistani Punjab. Early on the Akali's were not a force but with time they too became politically active. This brought religion into Punjab politics and the Central Congress party's attmepts to counter this through Bhinderanwala caused the state to have religious militancy, caused by small section of Sikh separatists, through most of the decade of the 1980s. The Akalis had leaders who were ambivalent on the Khalistan issue but as a party recovered from the prolonged President's rule in Punjab in the 1980s by allying with the B.J.P .