With the 2027 Assembly election still months away, the political battle in Punjab is already gathering momentum, with drugs, law and order and competing political campaigns dominating the discourse.
Our Bureau
Chandigarh
Punjab’s political temperature is rising well before the next Assembly election. A confrontation involving BJP leader and former Union minister Ravneet Singh Bittu, the launch of the BJP’s statewide ‘Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra’ and increasingly sharp exchanges between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Opposition parties have brought the state’s electoral politics into sharper focus.
The 2027 Assembly election is expected to be held early next year, and political parties are already preparing for what is shaping up as a multi-cornered contest. The AAP government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is seeking to defend its record, while the BJP, Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal are working to strengthen their respective positions. Recent political reporting has highlighted organisational challenges and factional differences across several of the major parties.
The BJP’s latest statewide campaign is centred on one of Punjab’s most persistent and politically sensitive issues — drugs.
The party has launched its ‘Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra’, a campaign that will travel about 4,000 kilometres and cover all 117 Assembly constituencies. It is scheduled to culminate in Jalandhar on September 30, where Union Home Minister Amit Shah is expected to address a rally. The BJP has described the campaign as a movement against drug abuse, while its political opponents are likely to view the extensive mobilisation through an electoral lens.
The timing is significant. The BJP has been attempting to expand its organisational presence in Punjab, a state where it historically played a smaller role than the Shiromani Akali Dal. The party has also been inducting leaders with political connections in the state as it prepares for the next election.
But the campaign got off to a contentious start after Bittu alleged that his convoy was attacked while he was travelling towards Pathankot to participate in the anti-drug yatra. He claimed that protesters surrounded the convoy, damaged vehicle windows and that some people were carrying weapons. He also alleged that three people apprehended by his security team were linked to the AAP and accused a local MLA of sending them.
These are allegations made by Bittu and other BJP leaders, and the claims require investigation by the authorities. Bittu has demanded registration of an FIR and raised questions about the security of political workers and leaders.
The incident has nevertheless immediately become part of the wider political confrontation.
BJP leaders have used the episode to question the law-and-order situation in Punjab. Krishan Dev Bhandari, HS Phoolka, Vijay Sampla and Jai Inder Kaur have all criticised the state government, while Bittu has linked the alleged attack directly to the political fight against drugs.
The AAP, for its part, faces the challenge of defending its governance record as the election approaches. The drug issue is particularly important because successive political formations in Punjab have made promises to tackle the problem. The BJP is now seeking to make the issue a central component of its statewide political mobilisation.
Nitin Nabin, while announcing the BJP campaign, argued that Punjab’s youth had been pushed towards addiction and accused political parties of exploiting the drug issue for electoral purposes. He said the BJP would undertake the campaign alongside families affected by drug abuse.
That message allows the BJP to connect a social issue with a broader political argument about governance and public safety. Whether that translates into electoral support, however, will depend on how voters assess the competing claims of the parties.
The political contest is not confined to the BJP and AAP. Congress is attempting to recover the ground lost in the 2022 election, while the Akali Dal is seeking to rebuild its traditional political base. Analysts have noted that divisions within the Opposition could shape the contest as much as the AAP government’s record.
For the moment, however, drugs and law and order have emerged as the immediate battleground. The BJP’s 4,000-kilometre yatra gives it an opportunity to take its campaign directly to every Assembly constituency, while giving the AAP government an equally visible political challenge to answer.
Punjab’s election campaign may still be some distance away, but the political contest has clearly begun. What happens on the ground over the coming months — particularly on drugs, governance, employment, agriculture, law and order and the state’s economic concerns — will shape the issues on which the parties eventually seek votes.
For now, the battle is being fought through yatras, accusations and counter-accusations. The intensity of the opening phase suggests that Punjab will remain one of the country’s closely watched political arenas as the 2027 election approaches.