As the electoral battle intensifies across Punjab’s Lok Sabha constituencies, an unexpected community has emerged as an influential swing vote bank – the state’s Christian population. With sizeable numbers concentrated in key battlegrounds like Gurdaspur, Amritsar and Ferozepur, Christian voters hold the potential to tilt outcomes in closely contested seats.
Traditionally leaning towards the Congress party and erstwhile ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the Christian community has now become the target of an aggressive outreach effort by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Controversially, some church leaders described as “self-styled” miracle performers, currently facing income tax scrutiny, have been roped in as new allies.
In Ferozepur, mere days before polling, BJP candidate Rana Gurmeet Sodhi met pastor Ankur Narula, famous for claims of performing miracles and accused by Sikh and Hindu bodies of fostering forced conversions. Narula’s premises were raided by tax sleuths last year. Similarly, in Gurdaspur, the BJP’s Dinesh Babbu shared stage with the high-profile “miracle” pastor Bajinder, who attracted tax authorities’ attention through his mass events earlier this year. It is pertinent to note that these very pastors have been maligned and targeted by social media handles that are sympathetic to the BJP and the ideology of Hindutva.
Spearheading these efforts is Thomas Masih, president of the BJP’s minority wing in Punjab. He campaigned alongside Babbu at one of Bajinder’s congregations. The party’s high-profile Amritsar candidate Taranjit Sandhu, a former Indian ambassador to the US, shared pictures with the Pope on social media while also attending Bajinder’s events in Ajnala.
With the SAD exiting its alliance with the BJP, the party has been compelled to directly cultivate these independent Christian leaders. “Earlier the SAD would transfer Christian votes to BJP candidates. Now we’re approaching them directly for the first time,” Masih acknowledged.
However, the BJP’s outreach strategies faced resistance on multiple fronts. During the campaign, a Congress candidate objected when a Hindu hymn performer made controversial remarks about churches at a BJP event, remarks that angered the Christian community. Though the singer later clarified his statements to defuse tensions that could derail the BJP’s outreach. Simultaneously, long-established mainstream churches raised apprehensions about the rising influence of these “self-styled” miracle-performing pastors cultivated by the BJP. One diocese head went as far as denouncing them as “fake pastors” and “anti-Christ,” over suspected illicit sources of funding for their activities.
Punjab’s Christian voters are fragmented – while generational Christian families exist, many marginalized Dalits have newly embraced the faith. Some practice it unofficially to retain access to constitutional benefits.
To counter the BJP’s evangelical outreach, opposition alliances like the Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) are promoting their secular credentials. A Congress leader asserted Christians won’t back the BJP after PM Modi’s perceived silence over ethnic violence in Manipur. However, he’s concerned about Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) making inroads into the Christian community through populist measures like free electricity.
Significantly, the AAP government’s crackdown on radical preacher Amritpal Singh after his anti-Christian remarks could boost its fortunes. An independent Christian candidate in Amritsar is optimistic of consolidating this divided base behind Punjab’s first-ever representative from the community.