India, April 27 -- When six of AAP's seven Punjab Rajya Sabha MPs walked into the BJP last week, they handed the party something it had never achieved in Punjab through elections alone - a dominant presence in the Upper House of Parliament from a state it has never won on its own. Assembly elections are next due in about 10 months.

The numbers are stark. In the 2022 Punjab assembly elections, the BJP secured 6.6% of the vote and won two of 117 seats, when the AAP won 92 and removed the Congress from power.

This was after decades that the BJP was not in alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). The Congress got 18 seats, the SAD just three, with the BJP following with two, and the rest of smaller parties or independents. After bypolls...