Arun Jaitley: Go-to man of SAD-BJP alliance in Punjab for 13 years

JALANDHAR: For the last 13 years, former finance minister Arun Jaitley was the go-to man for the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP alliance in Punjab. Now, with the most influential Punjabi leader of the saffron party at national level gone, things may change - both for Punjab BJP as well as for SAD.
Appointed in-charge of BJP affairs in Punjab in 2006, Jaitley anchored the SAD-BJP alliance till the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Irrespective of who was the party president or party affairs in-charge in the state, he had last word on the Punjab BJP affairs and the central leadership of the party abided by his advice on crucial issues.
It was Late Madan Lal Khurana, another Punjabi, who was the architect of SAD-BJP alliance in 1996-97 and played a crucial role in stitching up the alliance before the 1997 assembly election. But once Jaitley came into the picture, it was he who played a crucial role in anchoring the alliance in Punjab, especially in rough weather.
Sitting in Delhi, he macro-managed the alliance, which he considered of more of social importance than political, given the fault-lines in Punjab polity. During election time in Punjab, he would go into micro-management of individual seats and fine-tune things. It was Jaitley who initiated former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu into politics and the latter has always acknowledged him as his 'political guru'. After him, Jaitley is said to have brought in Bollywood actor Sunny Deol.
Jaitley gave long rope to ally SAD
However, the biggest paradox is that Jaitley, under whose command the BJP gave its best-ever performance in the 2007 assembly election — bagging 19 out of 23 seats — suffered a humiliating defeat from Amritsar in the 2014 parliament election, his first electoral battle.
At that time, relative lightweights fielded by the party elsewhere won by decent margins as did the other two candidates fielded by the BJP in Punjab.
Even though his detractors often focused on his defeat and it was thought that it would cast a shadow on the SADBJP alliance in Punjab, his loss was mainly attributed to people’s anger against SAD. BJP insiders said that despite his personal disappointment he did not change his approach on handling the alliance.
Party insiders also said that when his defeat fuelled bitterness among BJP leaders and workers against their ally, he remained the strongest advocate of continuing the alliance in Punjab.
BJP leaders often wondered why despite tensions with the alliance partner and phases of bitterness he gave a long rope to the SAD in Punjab.He played peacemaker whenever relations between the alliance partners became strained.
After the Vajpayee-Advani-Khurana era in Punjab, when a different dispensation helmed BJP at the national level and a paradigm shift was taking place in politics of the country, Jaitley provided the crucial cushion to the SAD and remained the go-to man for the alliance in Punjab.