West Bengal conquered and grip on Assam strengthened; the BJP is now eyeing towards three key northern states. One of course is Uttar Pradesh - the state of 80 Lok Sabha MPs, the state of Yogi Adityanath and the state of Ram Temple.
Uttarakhand has an importance of its own. The Hindu pilgrim state and a province which was the first BJP-ruled state to bring in Uniform Civil Code.
Hence, Punjab is different. A Sikh-dominant state; till now the Lotus party was happy playing second fiddle to the Akali Dal.
Haryana chief minister Naib Singh Saini is not being seen as an outsider, but rather is being viewed as a political bridge !!
They are no longer allies.
Haryana CM Naib Singh Saini has been visiting Punjab nearly every week since 2025, and the frequency of these visits has increased only lately.
Saini's visits are being observed as part of the BJP's outreach to solidify its cadre and gain more seats in the 2027 Assembly election.
The Lotus party currently holds only two seats in the 117-member Punjab Assembly and has no Lok Sabha MP from the state.
It is understood that the BJP lacks big faces in Punjab, but why pick Nayab Singh Saini for the push?
The Haryana CM is from the Saini community that is influential in Punjab, and his mother is a non-Jat Sikh.
Moreover, Punjabi is Saini's mother tongue, and he can address crowds in Punjab in fluent Punjabi.
"Positioning Nayab Singh Saini for the BJP's Punjab outreach is the right strategy," Ashutosh Kumar, professor of political science at Panjab University, told 'India Today Digital'.
"Saini belongs to the OBC community and has no ties with the farmers' movement of 2020. Also, Saini is not being seen as an outsider, but rather is being viewed as a political bridge for the BJP," Kumar added.
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| Faceless voters |
NDA contested the 2022 election without a Chief Ministerial face.
The Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) of Capt Amarinder Singh was allotted 37 seats, but only contested in 34 seats after it could not find candidates to run in 3 seats.
As is well known, for Amit Shah, elections are like hobby times.
For the BJP, every election begins long before the campaign officially starts.
This has been witnessed in several states, including West Bengal. Now -- "why not Punjab"?
This is a state where the saffron party has historically struggled to emerge as a formidable force.
The party strategists think; the timing is perfect. The Akalis are no longer alles and the unpopularity of Badal-family-run party is at its peak.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), that captured power in 2022, face growing anti-incumbency.
The grand old Congress is trapped in internal discord.
Does it all mean, the BJP is staring at its best opportunity in Punjab in years?
"Mainuu ki".
According to several news reports, the BJP's larger strategy is to replicate the "Haryana model" in Punjab.
The BJP's calculation for Punjab is rooted in both symbolism and social engineering. Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini belongs to the Saini community, an OBC group with a sizeable presence in Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan, particularly in the Doaba belt.
The Doaba belt is also known as the "NRI Hub" of Punjab, as it features the state's largest concentration of Non-Resident Indians and is a major centre for Dalit politics.
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| Farmers' and middlemen 'protest' in 2021 |
Saini's mother, Kulwant Kaur, is a non-Jat Sikh, and in Punjab, the Haryana chief minister is frequently seen wearing a saffron turban and speaking Punjabi fluently.
The saffron turban has been constant in Saini's Punjab outreach. The chief minister is seen wearing it every time he is in Punjab. This imagery makes Saini build a perception that he is someone from the inside.
"Saini can move across both Hindu and Sikh social spaces without appearing politically imported," professor Kumar said, explaining why the BJP considers him a natural fit for Punjab outreach.
However, it's a tough way to go ahead and quite a long way.
The model of building a coalition of non-Jat Other Backward Communities (OBCs), Dalits, and upper-caste Hindu voters, while attempting to bypass the traditional dominance of Jat Sikh politics, is what the saffron party is working on.
In 2021, the farmers strongly objected to new laws that constitutes the most sweeping reform to agriculture for decades.
Narendra Modi’s government said the laws would have brought necessary modernisation and private competition to an ailing sector that has left millions of farmers destitute.
But farmers and middlemen in Punjab and western UP said the laws were passed without consultation and would have allowed private corporations to control the prices of crops.
This, they alleged and wrongly crushed their livelihoods and take away their land.
Five years since then; India is still awaiting the important reforms.
ends
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