Chandigarh: The Punjab Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday filed what it calls a “charge sheet” against the Bhagwant Mann-led government for “monumental collapse of governance, preparedness and accountability” in tackling the recent floods in the state.
The unique “charge sheet” isn’t a legal indictment, but more of a political document that is part of the party’s broader “rural outreach” strategy to increase its foothold in areas where it has virtually no political presence or is facing active antagonism.
With the jury still out on whether the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and BJP will join hands for the 2027 assembly polls, the BJP has begun planning its election strategy, presuming that it will be going solo. In the past few months, the party’s state unit has focused on Punjab’s villages, an area the Akalis earlier used to manage as the BJP’s allies.
Releasing the 10-page so-called “charge sheet”, Ashwani Sharma, working president of the party in the state, launched a scathing attack on the AAP government, alleging that despite repeated warnings, expert reports and vast resources at its disposal, the Punjab government failed miserably to protect its people or respond effectively.
Despite the horrors of the 2023 floods, no lessons were learned, Sharma said.
“No inquiry was ever completed, and key recommendations were ignored. Even when the meteorological department issued early warnings, the AAP government’s response remained reactive rather than proactive. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was busy touring outside the state while Punjab drowned in distress,” he said.
Last month, state party chief Sunil Jakhar took on the government, alleging that Mann and his officers were lying to the people over the use of the Centre’s Rs 12,000 crore disaster relief funds to Punjab. The state finance minister, Harpal Cheema, denied that any such funds existed as claimed by the centre, while state chief secretary K.A.P. Sinha said that the funds existed only as bank entries.
During the Assembly’s special session last month to discuss the impact of floods, the BJP held a parallel session in its office in Chandigarh, squarely blaming the government for not being prepared for the disaster.
“The BJP has been ostensibly trying to make its presence felt in the areas most affected by the floods. It is in line with their overall efforts to try to patch up with farmers,” said Dr Kanwalpreet Kaur of the Department of Political Science at DAV College Sector 10, Chandigarh.
“The BJP’s relationship with Punjab’s peasantry had touched rock bottom during the Delhi-Singhu border protests, and now, after three years, they are hoping to undo some of the damage,” she added.
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Taking on the rural challenge
BJP leaders say the party has decided to take Punjab’s rural challenge head-on.
“The BJP already has a base in urban and semi-urban areas. So while strengthening them, we are working in villages. It’s not just all talk. Our leaders have been in the field, assisting during floods. I have personally gone to places where villagers are trying to build check dams to help,” Vineet Joshi, the party’s spokesperson, told ThePrint.
In May this year, the party launched a six-month-long campaign in villages titled “BJP de sevadar aa gaye tuhade dwaar” (BJP’s workers have arrived at your door) that involved hosting special camps in villages to register beneficiaries for central schemes.
As part of the campaign, the party aimed to cover 50 constituencies and reach 1.57 lakh people enrolled in various Union government schemes such as Kisan Samman Nidhi, Ayushman Bharat and Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao. Apart from ensuring that the beneficiaries were getting monetary assistance under these schemes directly from the Government of India, the BJP also wanted to enroll fresh beneficiaries.
However, the BJP’s outreach efforts met with considerable resistance from the state government, which asked the party’s leaders not to interfere in governance. In August, Jakhar was detained in Fazilka after the government ordered that the outreach campaign be ceased.
“The reason why the Mann government forced us to shut down the programme was that it was so successful. We managed to complete over 1,443 villages across 39 constituencies. Between 150 and 200 people benefited from these camps in every village. We will revive the camps once the flood-related activities reduce,” Punjab BJP spokesperson Anil Sarin told ThePrint Wednesday.
“The government shut us down on the pretext that we were gathering data. We were helping eligible beneficiaries get from the government of India what is their right,” said Sarin.
For the BJP, breaking into Punjab’s agriculture-centric rural areas has been a tough challenge. For the years that the BJP remained in power in Punjab, while in alliance with the SAD, its hold was limited to a few urban belts in Pathankot, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Hoshiarpur.
The allies complemented each other, with the Akalis focused on the rural Sikh Jat peasantry and the BJP holding some sway over the Hindu urban voters. The party lacked an organisational structure in villages, with no representation even at the block level.
When the allies broke away in 2021 over the three contentious farm laws brought in by the BJP at the Centre, farmers’ unions declared the party their ‘enemy number one’.
BJP leaders were chased away from villages, and it was almost impossible for them to campaign in the 2022 assembly elections, and it continued to be difficult in the 2024 parliamentary polls. But the situation has changed since. Party leaders say they don’t face resistance anymore and the local unit has strengthened its organisational structure.
“From those days when villagers would chase our leaders out of the village, things have changed. During our outreach camps, our banners and posters with photos of the prime minister were put up, and not a single person protested. When we halted the camps, we had a list of at least 100 villages that had approached us for the camps,” said Sarin.
“And it was not just about stopping in a village and creating the BJP’s visibility; the villagers were actively cooperating. Announcements were made from gurdwaras, village sarpanch were generating awareness,” he added.
“We have a network down to the booth level, even in the villages. A few villages together constitute a Shakti Kendra, which also has its head. Then there are over 615 mandals which have a head and 30 members under it. The mandal is assisted by half a dozen morchas. Our organisational structure in Punjab is complete,” said Sarin.
But what has really given the BJP a boost in Punjab is the increase in its vote share in the 2024 parliamentary polls. The party doubled its share to 18.5 percent from 9.63 percent in the 2019 elections.
“The BJP believes that it will be able to pull a rabbit out of the hat in Punjab just the way they did in Haryana in 2014. And the parliamentary elections results showed that they just have to keep at it,” said Dr Kaur.
“Based on showcasing its centralised farmer-friendly schemes and agenda, the BJP’s strategy has been persistent. BJP leaders have been on the move, meeting people in villages, organising local events, and most importantly, predominantly choosing local faces in villages as the party’s representatives, not outsiders,” she added.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)