New Delhi, Jun 9 (PTI) Tackling drug menace, religious conversions and “stalled” economic growth in Punjab will prominently figure in the BJP’s poll planks in next year’s assembly elections in the border state.
According to sources, the BJP will also firmly raise in its campaigns the issue of corruption and the “deteriorating” law and order situation in the wake of murders and the rise of gangsters under the Bhagwant Mann government while seeking to dislodge the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) from power in the state.
Assembly elections in Punjab are slated early next year and the BJP is leaving nothing to chance to wrest the border state from AAP.
“We will contest Punjab elections on the issue of conversion, drugs and stalled economic growth,” a source in the party said.
Party sources indicated that the BJP will go alone in the Punjab assembly polls. In the past, the BJP had an alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which moved out of the coalition following differences over the three farm laws which were later withdrawn.
The BJP has already begun preparations for the 2027 Punjab elections with Home Minister Amit Shah sounding the poll bugle at a “badlav” rally in Moga in March. He launched a broadside against the Mann government at the rally, highlighting issues of law and order, drug menace, religious conversion and corruption.
After its convincing victory in West Bengal, the BJP’s focus has now shifted to Punjab, where it recently appointed Kewal Singh Dhillon, a Jat Sikh, as the party’s state unit chief.
Dhillon, a two-time former Congress MLA from Barnala, had joined the BJP in 2022 and was subsequently appointed vice president of the state unit of the party.
The BJP is reaching out to voters in Punjab while urging them to give it a chance to bring about a perceptible change in the border state, which had once led on the economic front.
The BJP also recently got a shot in its arm after seven AAP Rajya Sabha MPs from Punjab, including Raghav Chadha, joined its ranks, parting ways from Arvind Kejriwal-led party recently.
“We are sensing a current in our favour in Punjab, especially after the West Bengal victory,” another source in the party said.
AAP recorded a landslide victory in the 2022 Punjab elections, winning 92 seats in the 117-member state legislative assembly, and formed its government under Mann. The BJP, which contested 73 seats, ended up securing just two seats and garnering 6.6 per cent vote share.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP contested alone and could not win any of the 13 seats but secured 18.65 per cent vote share.
“We have been consistently working at the grassroots level since the last assembly polls and there has been significant improvement on the ground, which reflects in the party’s vote share in the last Lok Sabha elections in Punjab,” another party source said.
The BJP is also likely to assign a key role to Union minister Ravneet Singh Bittu, who did not find his name in the list of Rajya Sabha nominees in the June 18 biennial elections. The Rajya Sabha tenure of Bittu is ending this month.
Sunil Jakhar, who was replaced by Dhillon as the Punjab BJP president, may also be given some key responsibility in the state, according to sources.
The party is currently scouting for its candidates in key constituencies ahead of elections and is conducting a ground survey in this regard, the sources said.
BJP president Nitin Nabin is also expected to visit the state later this month to give a boost to the party’s campaign. PTI PK ACB PK KSS KSS
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