The People's Party of Punjab (PPP) was a Punjab-based Indian political party, founded by Manpreet Singh Badal in March 2011. After disagreements with the Chief Minister and his uncle

Parkash Singh Badal Parkash Singh Badal ( pa, ਪ੍ਰਕਾਸ਼ ਸਿੰਘ ਬਾਦਲ; born 8 December 1927) is an Indian politician who was Chief Minister of Punjab state from 1970 to 1971, from 1977 to 1980, from 1997 to 2002, and from 2007 to 2017. He i ...

, Manpreet resigned from the position of Finance Minister of Punjab, and later, from membership of the state assembly. In 2016, Manpreet announced the merger of the party with the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

after meeting with party vice-president

Rahul Gandhi Rahul Gandhi ( ; born 19 June 1970) is an Indian politician and a member of the Indian Parliament, representing the constituency of Wayanad, Kerala in the 17th Lok Sabha. A member of the Indian National Congress, he served as the president of ...

History

The People's Party of Punjab (''PPP'') had a short-lived existence. After its formation in March 2011, it contested the

2012 Punjab Legislative Assembly election The Punjab legislative assembly election, 2012 was held on 30 January 2012, to elect 117 members to the Punjab Legislative Assembly. The results of the election were announced on 6 March 2012. The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal – Bharatiya Janata ...

. Following a non-impressive performance in 2012, it decided to dissolve the organizational structure in 2014 and make attempts to rejuvenate the party. The party forged an alliance with the

to contest the

2014 Indian general election General elections were held in India in nine phases from 7 April to 12 May 2014 to elect the members of the 16th Lok Sabha. With 834 million registered voters, they were the largest-ever elections in the world until being surpassed by the 2019 ...

with Manpreet contesting the

Bathinda Bathinda is a city and municipal corporation in Punjab, India. The city is the administrative headquarters of Bathinda District. It is located in northwestern India in the Malwa Region, west of the capital city of Chandigarh and is the fifth l ...

Parliamentary seat against

Harsimrat Kaur Badal Harsimrat Kaur Badal (born 25 July 1966) is an Indian politician and a former Union Cabinet Minister of Food Processing Industries in the Government of India and Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha from Bathinda. She is a member of Shiromani ...

. In 2015, amidst speculation that it would merge with the

Aam Aadmi Party The Aam Aadmi Party (; AAP) is a political party in India, as one of the national political parties. The AAP was founded in November 2012 by Arvind Kejriwal and his then-companions following the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement, popular ...

, the PPP denied talk of its merger. Later, in 2016, the party was dissolved and it merged with the

2012 Punjab State Election

The 2012 state election was the first to be contested by the party. It allied with the

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in term ...

, the

Communist Party of India Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925. H ...

and the

Shiromani Akali Dal (Longowal) Shiromani Akali Dal (Longowal) was a splinter group of the Parkash Singh Badal-led Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). The party was launched in 2004 with Surjit Kaur Barnala (wife of SAD leader Surjit Singh Barnala) as its president. Prem Singh Chan ...

in a group calling itself the Sanjha Morcha. Badal was the chief ministerial candidate of the coalition. The Sanjha Morcha was unsuccessful in winning any of the seats it had contested despite garnering an approximate share of 6% of the total votes polled.

Ideology

Unlike the

Shiromani Akali Dal The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) (translation: ''Supreme Akali Party'') is a centre-right sikh-centric state political party in Punjab, India. The party is the second-oldest in India, after Congress, being founded in 1920. Although there are many ...

from where Manpreet Singh Badal and a majority of his followers came, PPP maintained a distance from Sikh political affairs, and aimed to emerge as a secular third-front alternative in Punjab politics, aligning with various left parties.

References

External links

Main page
{{Indian political parties Political parties in Punjab, India Sikh politics Regionalist parties in India 2011 establishments in Punjab, India Political parties established in 2011