The various Akali Dal factions, seeing the writing on the wall, decided to sink their individual differences and fought the general elections unitedly in May, 1996. SAD was the only regional party to lend its support to the government of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
It, however, watered down its opposition to the United Front when Deve Gowda Ministry was formed and termed it “issue based”. The SAD had an electoral alliance with the BJP for the Feb. 97 Punjab Assembly elections and also for elections to the 12th Lok Sabha. It became a member of the ruling coalition led by BJP.
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The SAD split in 1999, when the thespian Tohra faction parted company with the Badal group. The former joined hands with the Cong. (I) and the latter continued with its support to the BJP. During the Oct.’99 parliamentary elections the Badal group lost heavily. Jagir Kaur, President of the party, had to resign, when she was indicted in the murder of her own daughter.
The Feb. 02, Punjab Assembly elections sprang a total surprise. The Congress was voted to power, the SAD with 41 seats retained its rural vote bank and the BJP was decimated with only 2 seats. Capt. Amarinder Singh, the Congress Chief Minister, levelled serious charges of corruption against the Akali Dal ministers for amassing wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income.
In mid-2003, residences of Prakash Singh Badal and his son were raided. The SAD, however, retained eight parliamentary seats during the May 2004 elections. Capt. Amrinder Singh and his Congress suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the SAD and the BJP in 2006.
Prakash Singh Badal occupied the Chief Ministerial seat; Punjab has almost reached a plateau in economic development and is lagging behind Haryana and Gujarat. Industrialisation is conspicuous by its absence and agriculture is languishing on account of the absence of a second green revolution.