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 that brought Punjab its 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 attempts 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 .

In the election Feb. 13, 2007 to the Legislative Assembly of Punjab, with a voter turnout of 75.42% the Shiromani Akali Dal won 48 seats with 37.09% of the vote (having contested only 93 seats) and its ally the Bharatiya Janata Party won 19 seats with 8.28% of the vote (having contested only 23 seats) making 67 for the SAD-BJP combine, while the Indian National Congress won 44 seats with 40.90% of the vote, independents won 5 seats, and the Bahujan Samaj Party took 4.13% of the vote.^[1]

Political parties

List of political parties in the state

See also

• Punjab, Pakistan
• Punjab, India
• History of the Punjab
• Punjabi people