Can ABVP’s Panjab University win help BJP expand in Punjab?
For the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the victory came at a useful moment.
On August 31, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) retained the presidency of the Panjab University Campus Students’ Council (PUCSC) for a second consecutive year. Its candidate, Ankit Bidhan, defeated the Aam Aadmi Party’s Association of Students for Alternative Politics (ASAP) candidate Adil Brar by 512 votes, while Congress’s National Students Union of India (NSUI) finished third. It was the first time in the varsity’s history that ABVP had retained the presidency for two consecutive terms.
Though BJP and ABVP are structurally separate organisations, ABVP is affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), while BJP is the Sangh Parivar’s political arm. This ideological proximity has lent the campus victory significance beyond the varsity, as political observers read the second consecutive win, coming less than six months before next year’s Assembly election, as a sign of BJP’s growing traction among young voters in Punjab.
BJP leaders, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, were quick to celebrate the result as a “testament to the unwavering faith of the youth power in the ‘Nation first’ ideology”.
However, the political significance of the win extends far beyond the campus.
A day before the election, the Student Organisation of India (SOI), the Shiromani Akali Dal’s (SAD) student wing, extended its support to Bidhan after its own candidate’s nomination was rejected. The last-minute understanding helped Bidhan in a closely fought contest and has since revived speculation over whether the BJP and SAD—former alliance partners in Punjab who have remained estranged since 2020—could find their way back to each other before the 2027 Assembly election.
The importance
Located in Chandigarh, Panjab University has a history and institutional status that have made it a point of contention over Punjab’s regional identity and its relationship with the Union government. Established in Lahore in 1882, the university was reconstituted in India after the 1947 Partition and later became an interstate body corporate under the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966.
It is in this political contest that ABVP’s second consecutive victory at Panjab University begins to mean more for the state’s politics.
“The University matters a lot politically because it creates a window into how national political forces negotiate their place in a state where regional identity overpowers everything,” explained Inderpal Singh, a political observer based in Punjab. “Unlike many other states, a victory here does not mean that the state’s electorate is moving in the same direction, but it can help an organisation like BJP establish legitimacy and challenge its image as an outsider to the state’s political culture.”
For BJP, Singh said, the significance of ABVP retaining the presidency for a second consecutive term lies in the continuity it gives the organisation on campus.
“A victory can be attributed to a particular electoral wave, but consecutive victories allow an organisation to consolidate its position and establish a more durable presence,” explained Singh. “For BJP, this creates an opportunity to build on an existing foothold rather than begin from scratch. The party may not necessarily expect to win Punjab in 2027, but it is laying the groundwork for a long-term expansion. This win can serve as an entry point into political life, allowing the wider Sangh network to cultivate people, build a stronger organisational base and develop a coterie of political workers. If that presence translates, the dividends may become more visible by the 2032 Assembly election.”
However, for ABVP, sustaining its presence on campus has meant addressing a more immediate challenge of consolidating its own organisation. ABVP members claim that the result was not simply an outcome of a divided opposition.
“Over the last two years, the organisation has overcome internal factionalism and consolidated its different groups on a common platform,” Shubham Bhardwaj, a senior ABVP member at Panjab University, told The Decifer. He said the organisation had a committed ideological base on campus, with core support of around 700 to 800 votes in presidential elections. Retaining that base while presenting a more united organisation, he argued, helped ABVP secure a second consecutive victory.
A possible bridge?
While ABVP’s consecutive victories at Panjab University offer BJP a chance to claim a growing presence among young voters, SOI’s support for ABVP at the university has also brought the possibility of a renewed understanding between the two estranged political parties into focus.
Dr Kiran Deep, a senior journalist from Punjab, locates the potential for an alliance in the parties’ contrasting electoral trajectories.
“For SAD, the problem is one of declining electoral influence,” Deep mentioned. “A party that once played a central role in Punjab politics now faces the challenge of rebuilding its support. For the BJP, the challenge is different. Its vote share has increased, but converting that support into assembly seats remains difficult.”
The BJP’s vote share in Punjab rose from about 9 percent in the 2019 Lok Sabha election to around 18 percent in 2024, but the party failed to win a single seat. The SAD won just one of the state’s 13 Lok Sabha seats in 2024, with its vote share falling from about 27 percent in 2019 to around 13 percent.
“An alliance could, in theory, bring together the parties’ different political strengths,” Deep noted. “But the real test will come when seat-sharing, leadership, ideology and the farmers’ movement become part of any serious discussion about an alliance.”
The two parties have a long history of political alliance. The SAD first joined hands with the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, BJP’s predecessor, in 1967. The coalition formed governments in Punjab in 1997, 2007 and 2012, combining SAD’s established support among sections of the Sikh electorate with BJP’s traditional urban support base.
That partnership fractured in September 2020 over the Modi government’s push to bring in three farm laws. The SAD withdrew from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), with Harsimrat Kaur Badal resigning from the Union Cabinet in protest. The party cited the interests of farmers, Sikhs, Punjab and the Punjabi language among its reasons for leaving.
The possibility of a reunion has not disappeared. In August 2026, a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal revived speculation about a possible rapprochement ahead of the 2027 Assembly election.
However, Deep’s assessment is that the campus-level understanding should not be mistaken for a political settlement. He argued that the result may remain no more than an isolated arrangement, but that similar cooperation elsewhere could change its significance.
“The Panjab University election may not tell us whether the two parties will reunite,” he added. “It does tell us that the question is not going away.”
Limits of an alliance
Jagtar Singh, a political observer, offers a more sceptical reading of the result. He noted that the significance being attached to ABVP’s consecutive victories is misplaced and that neither the campus result nor a possible understanding between BJP and SAD is likely to alter Punjab’s political landscape.
“These elections will not have any impact on the political situation of Punjab,” Singh told The Decifer. “ABVP [and BJP] have limited political space in the state, while SAD has lost much of its support. So even if they align with BJP, they would not gain much.”
His criticism extends to BJP’s reading of Punjab’s political dynamics. “By overplaying these university elections, it becomes quite clear that BJP does not understand Punjab. They are miscalculating the state,” Singh said. “They are applying the Haryana model in Punjab, along the lines of caste-based elections. Those calculations do not work in Punjab.”
However, Kuldeep Panghal, the former unit president of ABVP at Panjab University, offers a contrasting interpretation of the result. He believes that the victory reflects growing disillusionment among Punjab’s youth with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and creates an opportunity for the BJP to expand its political presence in the state.
“Whether the alliance takes place or not, one thing is clear: the youth of Punjab is fed up with AAP, which has betrayed the public’s mandate,” Panghal said. Referring to allegations during the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) protests that young people opposed the RSS because of its ideology, he argued that the election result had challenged that perception.
“Today, the youth of Punjab is supporting us,” he said. “If, tomorrow, they continue to believe in our ideology and the work we do, the BJP could give Punjab’s politics a new face.”