India's Akali-BJP Alliance: The 1997 Legislative Assembly Elections Author(s): Gurharpal Singh Source: Asian Survey, Vol. 38, No. 4 (Apr., 1998), pp. 398-409 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2645414 Accessed: 21-06-2019 12:28 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Asian Survey This content downloaded from 195.195.176.5 on Fri, 21 Jun 2019 12:28:18 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms INDIA'S AKALI-BJP ALLIANCE The 1997 Legislative Assembly Elections Gurharpal Singh In India's 11th Lok Sabha elections (May 1996), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the largest single political party. As speculation intensified about the possibility of the BJP forming its first ever national government, one regional party, the Akali Dal (Badal) (AD[B]), made a public declaration of support for the BJP's claim, which surprised many observers. Why, they wondered, was the Sikhs' premier political rep- resentative prepared to give support to the leading