AAP Wins Tarn Taran; SAD Gets Another Chance

The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won the Tarn Taran Assembly constituency by-poll in Panjab, even as its vote share declined by 4.5% points from the 2022 Assembly election. The victory extends the party’s run in by-polls, following earlier wins in Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal, and Ludhiana West in 2024 and 2025. AAP candidate Harmeet Singh Sandhu, who joined the party after leaving the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) shortly before the by-poll, won by a margin of 12,091 votes, defeating SAD candidate Sukhwinder Kaur. Though Tarn Taran is a SAD stronghold, given the challenge from independent Mandeep Singh—backed by Akali Dal (Waris Panjab De) and breakaway SAD—the party coming in second has given a new lease of life to the party which has been showing up at the bottom in elections since 2017. This improvement in tally sends a message of revival for a party many had written off. Panjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann called the result a victory of hard work, emphasising the win reflects the people's preference for effective governance. However, AAP’s use of police machinery has been public knowledge. While SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal had earlier complained about fake cases on party workers, a day after the polls the SAD candidate's daughter Kanchanpreet Kaur was booked for poll violations. A day after the results, SAD Information Technology head Nachhatar Singh was taken into remand by the police. Independent candidate Mandeep said, ‘Had I not contested, SAD would have won.’ The confession points at how Sikh voters in the constituency were split between the moderate SAD and Mandeep’s hardline backers. Indian National Congress (INC) candidate Karanbir Singh Burj secured fourth place, while the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Harjit Singh Sandhu finished fifth. Both the INC and BJP candidates lost their security deposits. INC, the principal opposition in the state, was caught in by internal factionalism and Panjab INC chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring’s irresponsible comments targeting former marginalized caste leaders and mocking Sikh children. BJP's performance shows the party has been unable to plant itself in Panjab. The result also raises speculation that BJP might ask SAD for a re-alliance in the 2027 Assembly elections (earlier coverage).

Despite the Panjab University (PU) administration sending the Senate election schedule on 9 Nov to the Vice President (VP) of India Chandrapuram Ponnusamy Radhakrishnan who also serves as the Chancellor of PU, he has still not approved it. The irony is the university rules do not call for the VP to approve the election schedule. It is a tradition the current administration wants to adhere to. The protesting students from Panjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and other states had warned that they will not allow PU  to conduct examinations between 18–20 Nov. On 15 Nov, PU  postponed the examinations. On the same day, the Punjab and Haryana High Court (PHHC) observed that students should return to classes and trust that elections will be conducted. PHHC did not explain why Senate elections have not been held since January 2024 and why the students demanding democratic process is wrong. Various farmer unions, social organizations, Left organizations, and political parties are supporting the protest. Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal came in support of students. He gave a call to all parties to come together to demand PU be handed over to Panjab. Though PU came to India after the Partition of 1947, after the trifurcation of Panjab in 1966, over time, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh have ended their claim and stopped funding the university. He did not bring up the matter of Panjab's long standing claim on Chandigarh. However, the question remains: in their 24-year-long partnership with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), why did SAD not solve these and other matters? The Panjab University Bachao Morcha (save front) has given a call for a meeting with like-minded organizations on 20 Nov. On 17 Nov, at the 32^nd meeting of the Northern Zonal Council, Panjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann asserted Panjab's claim on Chandigarh and elections to PU senate, besides the matters of Bhakra Beas Management Board. He also raised the issue of maintaining the status quo of the 60:40 ratio in the intake of service personnel from Panjab and Haryana in the functioning of the Chandigarh Union Territory (earlier coverage).

On 15 Nov, as part of the 350^th martyrdom anniversary of the ninth Sikh Sovereign, Guru Teghbahadar, the Qaumi Insaaf Morcha (Community Justice Front, QIM) started a march to Gurdwara Sis Ganj in Delhi to demand the release of Bandi Singh (Sikh prisoners). As earlier during Farmers Protest 2.0 (2023–24), the Haryana police blocked the march by closing the Shambhu interstate border between Panjab and Haryana. Social organizations of different hues—Samyukt Kisan Morcha (non-political), Samyukt Kisan Morcha and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, Dal Khalsa, CPI (Marxist) Liberation, Kirti Kisan Union, and Punjab Human Rights Organisation—joined the QIM-led march. Hundreds of activists from these organizations and the Hindu community spoke in solidarity with the QIM demand. After hours of tension, Joint Secretary Home Department Prashant Lokhande arrived to hold discussions with QIM leaders. The protesters submitted a memorandum to the government. Late evening, the Shambhu border was opened to commuters. Meanwhile, at Amritsar, the Panjab government marked the anniversary with a light and sound show titled Hind di Chadar (Protector of India or Hindus) highlighting the life and sacrifice of the Guru. The domain of Srisht ki Chadar (Protector of Humanity). He sacrificed his life to defend the rights of entire humanity and not how governments now emphasize the sacrifice was for a specific community or a nation. Meanwhile, the Panjab government will hold a Legislative Assembly special session on 24 Nov at Sri Anandpur Sahib. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has stopped an animation film titled Hind di Chadar. SGPC has also refused to allow the state government use of Sri Kesgarh Sahib premises and infrastructure for the official functions. The standoff between the Sikh governing body SGPC and the state government is similar to the 1999 Khalsa tri-centenary events. Concurrently, the Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar Vice Chancellor Prof Karamjeet Singh announced the university will dedicate its 56^th Foundation Day to the 350^th martyrdom anniversary of Guru Teghbahadar. GNDU will also create a digital archive of the literature related to the Guru (earlier coverage).

The Sikh jatha (group) returned after 10 days via Attari-Wagah border on 14 Nov after attending the celebrations of first Sikh Sovereign, Guru Nanak’s birth anniversary at Nankana Sahib, Pakistani Panjab. The pilgrims also visited other major Sikh shrines in Pakistan, including Gurdwara Panja Sahib, Hasan Abdal; Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib, Narowal; Gurdwara Sacha Sauda, Gurdwara Dehra Sahib, Lahore; and Gurdwara Rori Sahib, Eminabad. Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee president and Pakistan Panjab’s minorities minister Ramesh Singh Arora and Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) Additional Secretary Nasir Mushtaq were among the officials who saw the jatha off at the Wagah border. During the pilgrimage, 52-year-old Sarbjit Kaur of Amanipur village in Indian Panjab's Kapurthala district went missing. Sarabjit has supposedly converted to Islam, named herself Noor Hussain. She has married Nasir Hussain a resident of Sheikhupura, about 56 km from Lahore. A nikahnama (an Islamic wedding contract) in Urdu has now surfaced. Sarabjit was divorced and has two sons with her ex-husband, Karnail Singh, who has been living in England for nearly 30 years. Sarabjit knew Nasir for the last nine years. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has said it is planning to bar single women travellers from joining jathas to Pakistan and tighten norms in this regard. In April 2018, a Sikh jatha member Kiran Bala had failed to return to India after she embraced Islam and changed her name to Amna Bibi after marrying a Lahore man. SGPC member and former general secretary Bibi Kiranjot Kaur said, 'One woman does not represent all Sikh women. The decision to bar single women from jathas is ridiculous.' In the Court of Judicial Magistrate Muhammad Khalid Mahmood Warraich, in Lahore, Sarabjit denied she was abducted. She said, 'I happily married Hussain,' and added, 'some people threatened to register a false case against us.' She has urged the Pakistan government to provide her and her husband with security. An official said, 'She may be deported and asked to come back to Pakistan on a spouse visa.' Meanwhile, 67-year-old Sukhwinder Singh, a resident of Chawke village in Bathinda district, died of cardiac arrest during the pilgrimage (earlier coverage).

On India's National Press Day, 16 Nov, a journalist in Panjab Ranjit Singh Gill was attacked by goons who had the support of a ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Member of Legislative (MLA) Assembly Baljit Kaur. Ranjit was on his way from Malout, Muktsar when he spotted trollies with paddy on the road. Since paddy procurement has been stopped in small grain markets, Ranjit was curious where the trollies were headed. The trollies stopped at Theri village's Fakarsar grain market. A commission agent Rana (no second name) threatened Ranjit. The laborers in the grain market beat him up; Rana even pulled a pistol on him. After which Ranjit escaped and reached a hospital but for at least four hours neither the police nor administration came to enquire about him. Later, the police threatened Ranjit to withdraw the case, else they would charge him with a case of abuse of the marginalized caste—Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Indian National Congress MLA Pargat Singh and other opposition leaders have condemned the attack. Meanwhile, 32-year-old Naveen Arora, son of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Baldev Raj Arora, was shot dead by two unidentified motorcycle-borne assailants on 15 Nov in Ferozepur when he was walking home from his shop. On 16 Nov, Panjab Bharatiya Janata Party chief Sunil Jakhar said Naveen’s murder has once again exposed the AAP government’s failure to maintain law and order in the state. He said, 'People of Panjab are being forced to live in an atmosphere of fear.' Panjab BJP working president Ashwani Sharma said, 'A spree of murders and crimes targeting businessmen, athletes, youth, and common people raises serious questions about the incompetent working style of the Panjab government.' On 17 Nov, a newly-formed pro-Khalistan group, the Sher-e-Punjab Brigade, claimed responsibility for the murder. The letter is signed in the name of Paramjit Singh and issued by spokesperson Bahadur Singh Sandhu. A police officer (name withheld) said the authenticity of the letter was yet to be verified. The police have not yet identified a motive for the killing (earlier coverage).

The Panjab Cabinet has allowed residential units of minimum one acre (33,44 sqm) in areas excluded from the purview of the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), 1900. Expected to benefit several influential persons, politicians, serving and retired bureaucrats, the decision would regularize hundreds of existing farmhouses in the fragile Kandi are— sub-mountainous tracts along foothills of Shivalik Hills—stretching from Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar to Pathankot. A total of 55K hectares of land abutting forests with rich flora and fauna has been excluded. The change has been made to accommodate those properties which were earlier excluded from the Eco Tourism Policy, 2009 for not adhering to norms. The decision is likely to have far-reaching ecological implications. Finance Minister Harpal Cheema said, ‘the policy incorporates robust safeguards such as mandatory plantation of indigenous species, use of sustainable building materials, and provisions for rainwater harvesting and solar energy.’ He added, ‘The instructions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court (PHHC) and the Center’s (Indian government) guidelines have been adhered to.’ An environmentalist from the Public Action Committee Jaskirat Singh said, 'The policy is a clear example of conflict of interest as the policymakers themselves have stakes in the land. The details of those who have purchased land over the past few years should be disclosed.' Meanwhile, the Panjab government has informed the PHHC that a total of 5,228 gram panchayats (village councils) out of 13,241 in Panjab have no income from their own resources. In a contempt case related to the non-payment of honorarium to sarpanch (village council heads) and panch (village council members), Rural Development and Panchayats (RDP) Director Uma Shanker Gupta submitted that the total liability of such honorarium from 2013–2024 amounts to USD 8.5M. Concurrently, the RDP has introduced a new standard operating procedure for elected panchayat representatives, making it mandatory for them to seek leave sanction before leaving the country. The government had taken the decision following reports that rural development often got stalled when representatives of panchayat bodies fly abroad, mostly in winter, to visit relatives or for other work.

The Panjab government has distributed compensation to residents of three severely flood impacted villages—Alam Khanwala, Sherpur Dogra, and Passan Kadim—in Kapurthala district. The farmers have received USD 225 per acre for crop damage. So far, the Panjab government has provided compensation for all types of losses including damage to houses, crops, and livestock across a total of 1,143 villages in the state. However, for the past nearly two months, Manjit Kaur and her sister Raj Kaur, whose twin houses fell to the raging waters of the river Beas, have been spending days in a tent shack in the middle of fields at village Baupur. Like the sisters, the families of Hardev Singh and Bakhtaur (no second name), too, have been living at their relative's houses at the village Gurdwara. Ironically, while the devastation continues, illegal mining has started again. Despite repeated complaints and recent enforcement actions, illegal mining continues unchecked on the riverbeds of Anandpur Sahib and Nangal sub-divisions. While state mining laws permit mining only from dawn to dusk, the Swan and Sutlej riverbeds in Rupnagar district turn into sprawling illegal mining hubs every night. Concurrently, amid drop in arrivals, the Panjab Food and Civil Supplies Department has decided to wind up the paddy procurement operation this week. In 2025, the arrivals and the subsequent procurement have been the lowest in the past nine years. Against the estimated 18 MMT, only 15.6 MMT of paddy have been procured. This is a 2.4 MMT shortfall. In the previous five years, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020, total paddy procured stood at 17.5, 18.8, 18.3, 18.7, and 16.2 MMT. The floods and incessant rains in the month of August-September impacted the production with the loss in terms of grain quantity pegged at 15% of production, which in financial terms translates to nearly USD 1.13B . Last week, the Union ministry of Food and Public Distribution allowed relaxation in procurement norms by allowing the purchase of produce with up to 10% discolored and damaged grain, up from 5%. The relief came after the majority of the crop, 15 MMT, had already been procured (earlier coverage).

The Chandigarh Union Territory (UT) administration has agreed to reduce the deposit on the Group Home in Sector 31 from USD 22.5K to USD 6.7K. Group Home is a first of its kind facility in India with modern infrastructure for people with mental illness and intellectual disability as per the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017. The facility was created to support adults with conditions like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, but lies largely unused. Aruna Rathore, a 61-year-old mother to an autistic child died earlier in November waiting for her son to be accepted to the facility. Despite an 80-bed capacity, the facility rejected 24 of the 37 applications received in 2025 over financial or procedural demands. After two years of deliberations and parents’ efforts, the UT administration has agreed to reduce the security deposit for the Group Home. Meanwhile, in an official communication to the Panjab government, Unique Identification Authority of India’s (UIAI aka Adhaar) regional office in Chandigarh informed that during Aadhar data verification exercises, it came to light that in Ludhiana, Gurdaspur, and Sangrur districts, individuals had more than one birth certificate. The Panjab government has directed all district registrar-cum-civil surgeons to conduct an immediate inquiry. Additionally, in a report published by National Institution for Transforming India Aayog (Mission) in October 2025, Panjab, alongwith Haryana, has emerged as a state with a rising share of workforce employed in the service sector. The report states that 40.8% of the workforce was employed in the service sector and the state’s service employment share remained higher than the national average of 29.7%. Panjab has also become the first state in India to implement the amended Bharat Net Scheme throughout the state. The Panjab Chief Secretary Kumar Anugraha Prasad Sinha said that internet and broadband services have been provided in the 43 shadow areas in the state with only one village remaining. With telecom in India largely privatized and the government carrier not very robust this achievement seems more ornamental than substantial to citizens (earlier coverage).

On 10 Nov, a powerful explosion took place near Delhi’s historic Red Fort. The blast which tore through the crowded area has killed 15 people so far. No splinters were found at the scene, no crater was formed—indicators typically present in conventional bomb blasts. Many vehicles were damaged, but the absence of a foul smell or traces of RDX deepened the mystery. By 12 Nov, the Union Cabinet said, ‘The country has witnessed a heinous terror incident, perpetrated by anti-national forces.' In parallel, police officials were probing possible links between the Red Fort explosion and a major recovery of arms and explosives from staff of the Al-Falah University of Medical Sciences and Research in Faridabad, which is part of the National Capital Region. Jammu and Kashmir Police had seized 350 kg of suspected ammonium nitrate, an AK-47 rifle, a pistol, three magazines, 20 timers, a walkie-talkie set, and ammunition from a rented accommodation. Additionally, on 15 Nov, nine people were killed and several others were injured in a powerful explosion at the Nowgam police station on the outskirts of Srinagar. The blast occurred while police and forensic teams were examining explosive material seized from Faridabad, part of the 2.9K kg chemicals recovered from an arrested doctor in the case. Jammu & Kashmir National Conference's Member of Parliament from Srinagar Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi said, 'There are too many lapses in the process. How could such explosive material be handled so irresponsibly and brought into a police station located in a crowded locality? There were no professional teams handling the material. We hope the accountability is fixed. Who are involved? Who were responsible?' On 13 Nov, a National Investigative Agency team raided the clinic and house of Dr Jaan Nisar at Bal Singh Nagar in Ludhiana. The police also picked up a Pathankot surgeon, in his early 40s, after it emerged that one of the accused had called him on the phone. The Panjab and Haryana police have said that in the wake of the blast in Delhi, a red alert had been sounded across all districts in the two states.

The biggest literary award for fiction books in Panjabi, the Dhahan Prize for 2015 was awarded to Balbir Singh Parwana from Jalandhar, Panjab on 12 Nov. Balbir received the award for his novel Rauleyan Vele (In the Time of Unrest) and a cash award of CAD 25K. Alongside Balbir, Mudassar Bashir, Lahore and Bhagwant Rasulpuri, Jalandhar were also announced as two finalists for their works Goyal (Precarious Shelter, a novel) and Delivery Man (a short story collection), respectively. Meanwhile, author Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa, from Australia, published her debut book Fully Sikh: Hot Chips and Turmeric Stains in early 2025. The book explores the themes of Sikh-Australian identity, culture, and family through a blend of poetry, prose, and recipes. Khalsa, who always faced issues of belonging in a land where her identity was not understood, says slam poetry is to be credited for her unique journey. ‘I hated myself, hated my body hair, hated not belonging,’ she says. ‘Slowly, art made me love myself.’ Khalsa started her journey in a poetry slam in Perth in 2014 with a poem about her experience as a Sikh woman, who doesn't remove her body hair for cultural reasons, but sometimes feels judged for being unshaven. The poem landed her in the final of Australian poetry slam at Opera House. Since then, Khalsa has earned an Order of Australia medal, become head of an independent theatre, Blue Room in Perth. Today she looks at her identity as being about more than her Sikh identity and is working on new screen projects and a rom-com musical. Also, a Sikh from Peterborough, UK Jax Singh Takk has published his first novel called Blitzkrieg Tommies. Singh who suffers from chronic pain has credited writing to helping him cope with his pain and ‘transcending physical limitations’. Blitzkrieg Tommies is a gripping journey of Private Singh, a Sikh soldier in the British Army in World War II and Major Watkins who leads a covert team of military prisoners, known as the Rum Bunch, on a daring mission behind enemy lines. The story is set in World War II.