So, is Punjab witnessing the political return of Amritpal Singh, or is it yet another search for a panthic alternative that usually fades once the emotional charge dissipates? In the November 2025 Tarn Taran Assembly bypoll, a seat within Amritpal’s Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha constituency, the Waris Punjab De candidate finished a distant third, with 19,620 votes. It also exposed Waris Punjab De’s failure to develop a village-level network, which had once made the Akalis formidable. Rise of AmritpalAfter spending several years in Dubai, a clean-shaven Amritpal, then just 29, had returned to Punjab in 2022. Waris Punjab De still looks less like the beginning of a new panthic consolidation and more like another challenge to an eroded Akali Dal, and one that thrives on grievance and symbolism.