Chandigarh: The Bharatiya Kisan Union (Kadian) on Monday extended unconditional support to the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for the upcoming Punjab Assembly elections. BKU (Kadian) president Harmeet Singh Kadian made the announcement in SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal's presence, news agency PTI reported. The union is part of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, the umbrella body that led the agitation against the now-repealed farm laws.

Source: PTI via India Today (News89)

Announcing the pledge at a press conference in Chandigarh, Badal said the union's leadership and district presidents had come and decided to support the SAD in the 2027 elections, and he claimed the union has a huge influence in Punjab — that assessment is Badal's. Assuring the farm union of his party's full support, he promised that on forming the government, resolving agricultural distress and farmers' issues would be his government's foremost priority, ANI reported. ANI rendered the union's name as 'Qadian'; PTI and Punjabi channel ABP Sanjha both identify it as BKU (Kadian), headed by Harmeet Singh Kadian.

Source: ANI via Devdiscourse

Support from one farm-union faction, on a day of political churn

The endorsement is from the BKU (Kadian) faction specifically; Punjab's farm movement has many unions, and no other union announced support for any party in the reports read. The announcement came on the same day three rebel AAP MLAs — Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra and Chetan Singh Jouramajra — formally joined the BJP in Delhi. Attacking the ruling party at the same press conference, Badal claimed 'no one will remain in Jhaadu' and alleged that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann would lose in 2027 — those are Badal's claims and predictions, not results. The reports read carried no response from the AAP or the Congress to the BKU (Kadian) endorsement.

Badal also kept the suspense alive on a possible SAD-BJP reunion. Asked about reuniting with the BJP, he said, 'Main pandit tan hai nahin (I am not a Pandit). You will come to know in a few days what will happen,' according to PTI, and reiterated that the SAD is open to parties that accept its philosophy except the Congress and the AAP. Punjab BJP leaders have publicly said the party is preparing to contest all 117 seats on its own. The SAD ended its 24-year alliance with the BJP in September 2020 over the three farm laws, which were later repealed; under the old arrangement the SAD contested 94 Assembly seats and the BJP 23.

117Punjab Assembly seats at stake in 2027
3Seats SAD won in 2022, contesting separately from the BJP
2020Year SAD ended its 24-year BJP alliance over the farm laws

What happens next: whether other farm unions take a position for 2027, whether the SAD and BJP clarify an alliance in the coming days as Badal indicated, and how the AAP responds to a day that brought it three defections and its main regional rival a farm-union endorsement.