The fresh wave of farmer protests, sparked by the power cuts while paddy ripens, could recast Punjab's 2027 election. AAP faces anger over farm supply in the state, and the BJP faces it over central policy. Congress, out of office in both places, is free to ride that rural discontent if the fields stay dry.
In a second Punjab farmer protest reported within a week, the activists from BKU Ekta Sidhupur, Azad Kisan Morcha and other unions have been forced to block roads in Malwa region and stage sit ins outside PSPCL offices and grids because unannounced power outages threatened the paddy crop. They reminded the AAP government of their eight hours of uninterrupted farm power promise.
Farmers say that power outages last three to four hours a day, often in broken spells, while the crop needs standing water. Drying fields endanger transplanting costs, land rent, and investments in inputs. Diesel is the backup, and it is eating margins. Where canal water is also short, the tubewell is not optional.
Kisan Mazdoor Morcha has packaged the same power failure into a wider 12-point charter and taken the protest to ministers' homes and the Assembly Speaker's residence. The power outage issue tops the demand charter submitted by an umbrella of 32 farmer unions last week.
Other demands include MSP procurement for crops beyond wheat and paddy - basmati, maize, moong, mustard and potato - debt waiver for farmers and workers, action on floods, groundwater and pollution, withdrawal of proposed electricity and seed bills, rejection of the India-US trade pact as the union frames it, dropping cases from earlier agitations, and scrapping land pooling.
Even after an umbrella of 32 unions lifted a week-long sit-in at the Chandigarh-Mohali border, this electricity-led wave is still alive. It lands on both the Aam Aadmi Party in Chandigarh and the BJP in Delhi. AAP owns the broken supply on the ground. The BJP owns the central pool, farm policy and the trade and legal fights unions have tied to the charter. Rural anger therefore cuts two ways at once. Punjab's fresh wave of farmer protests threatens to disrupt the political calculus for both the ruling AAP and BJP, creating a strategic opening for the Congress.
The fresh agitation, targeting unfulfilled promises, central agricultural policies, and accumulated rural distress, threatens to upend the political equilibrium in a state heading toward the 2027 Assembly election.
While the ruling AAP in Punjab and the BJP at the Centre find themselves in the crosshairs of rural anger, the Congress is strategically positioned to harvest anti-incumbency without carrying the full burden of incumbency.
A total of 32 farmer organisations are under the umbrella of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), including the Bharati Kisan Union (BKU) - Lakhowal, BKU - Rajewal (led by Balbir Singh Rajewal), BKU - Dakaunda, Kirti Kisan Union, All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), BKU - Shadipur, and the Punjab Kisan Union.
The sit-in was lifted based on written assurance given by Punjab Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian that the government will call a special session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha within a month, in which a proposal for a One-Time Settlement (OTS) scheme for farm debt waiver will be brought.
"The SKM is demanding that river water disputes be resolved based on the riparian principle, the abolition of Sections 78, 79, and 80 of the Reorganisation Act 1966, a complete loan waiver for farmers and agricultural labourers, and opposition to the proposed free trade agreement with the United States. In addition, key demands include fixing the Minimum Support Price (MSP) based on C2 + 50 per cent for all agricultural produce except wheat and paddy, repealing the Dam Safety Act, the Electricity Amendment Act, and the Seeds Bill, and providing a monthly social security allowance of Rs 10,000 to farmers and labourers," said Sarwan Singh Pandher of Punjab's Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee.
Another farmer union leader of BKU Rajewal, Balbir Singh Rajewal, said the depletion of water tables in Punjab, which threatens future agriculture, is another issue the farmer unions have raised with the authorities.
"Experts say the water will run out in Punjab by 2039, which will create a dire situation for the people. Before this critical situation arises, the people of Punjab are pressing governments for their demands. Memorandums have been submitted to governments and protests have been staged for a long time to resolve the water issue, but governments are paying no attention to the farmers of Punjab,"Balbir Singh Rajewal said .
AAP's Farmer Ledger
While the ruling AAP government has fulfilled two key promises - free household power up to 300 units and expanded canal irrigation, core demands - including comprehensive debt waivers and legally backed MSP - remain unfulfilled. Recent protests at the Chandigarh-Mohali border stem directly from unions asserting these commitments were broken.
"Debt is the largest unpaid item. Mann called freeing farmers a top priority but mostly asked Delhi for a national waiver. Relief has been narrow - some SC corporation write-offs, higher KCC limits, and only in September 2026 talk of an OTS scheme. There is still no blanket waiver of cooperative and bank farm debt," says Sarwan Singh Pandher.
Farmer leaders say the diversification was promised through procurement of moong, maize, basmati and other crops plus a DSR incentive. Some moong buying happened. A stable, statewide guarantee equal to wheat and paddy did not. Farmers will not leave paddy without that market.
Inconsistencies have consistently marked government procurement of summer moong in Punjab. To promote crop diversification, the state cultivated the crop across 1.08 lakh acres with a Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs 7,275 in 2022, yet actual state procurement remained nominal. Conversely, state agencies completely withdrew from procurement between 2024 and 2026, and Punjab was also excluded from the Centre's Price Support Scheme (PSS). Lacking local procurement support, farmers have been forced to sell their produce to private traders at rates significantly below the official MSP.
Legal MSP remains a solidarity slogan AAP cannot legislate; only Parliament can. Farmers still score it as unkept because the same party now faces sit-ins as the state government.
"Compensation for tractors and trolleys lost at Shambhu and Khanauri is the sharpest AAP-specific charge: a state promise, unions say, was not fully paid. Compulsory land pooling in 2025 was rolled back after protest, then made optional. Water-sharing resolutions keep being promised while old agreements stand. Cane dues and a Rs 500/quintal price keep needing another assurance," Sarwan Singh Pandher reminded the Punjab Government.
Why Punjab Unions Say the Centre Broke Faith After the Farm Laws
BJP's farmer pledges sit on two shelves: manifesto and budget lines, and the written assurances of 9 December 2021 that ended the year-long Delhi-border stir. Unions treat the second set as the real contract - and the real breach.
Despite launching schemes like PM-KISAN, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Kisan Credit Card, e-NAM, Soil Health Card Scheme, Agricultural Infrastructure Fund, and Digital Agriculture Mission, farmers demand the execution of legal MSP -- MSP beyond wheat and paddy, and implementation of the Swaminathan report.
Doubling farm income by 2022 is scored as unmet despite higher MSP outlays and PM-Kisan. Union leaders say that as per the assurance, the cases registered against them during the agitation are yet to be dropped. The demand charter also includes cancellation of the US trade deal.
Opens the Door for Congress
The agitating farmer unions may have accepted the Punjab government's offer for a special Assembly session, an OTS committee, resolutions on water and central bills, but they have kept the federal file open: legal MSP, trade policy, debt, river water. While the unions have put the BJP and AAP in the dock for unmet demands, they have left room for the Congress to manoeuvre.
AAP takes the first hit because it is the government in the villages. AAP's vote share, which was 42 per cent in 2022 when the party won 92 seats, slipped to 26 per cent in 2024 following the anti-incumbency.
The BJP may not be running Punjab, but it carries the past baggage of the three repealed farm laws. What is noteworthy is that despite the resentment over the unmet legal guarantee of MSP, besides other demands, the saffron party's vote share has risen from 6.6 per cent in 2022 to 18.6 per cent in 2024 despite having failed to win even a single Lok Sabha seat.
"There is a catch: the increased vote share is more urban than rural. The 2024 Lok Sabha election vote share is largely confined to urban and semi-urban municipal pockets, and there is a deficit in rural blocks. Because of intense anger surrounding central agricultural policies and ongoing farm protests, its penetration into agrarian village segments remains severely limited, which prevented it from converting its 18.56% statewide vote footprint into any parliamentary seats in 2024. The fresh wave of farmer protests will only add to the BJP's woes," says Prof Varinder Sharma, Director, IDC, Chandigarh.
Already benefiting from the anti-incumbency against AAP and BJP, the fresh farmer protests will further strengthen Congress's chances. That double opposition is a rare position in Punjab politics just now. Seven Lok Sabha seats in 2024 already showed a partial return. Disgruntled AAP voters in the countryside and voters who will not touch the BJP after 2020-21 are the same pool Congress needs.
