Religious polarisation helped BJP to a large extent in a tough election in West Bengal. But in Punjab; there are no Muslims in such numbers to disturb the saffron party.
Instead various dynamics vis-a-vis local Christians may create hurdles.
Addressing a pre-election rally on March 14 in Moga town, Home Minister Amit Shah said that Punjab had been destroyed by debt, drugs, religious conversions, corruption and the terror of gangsters.
He said that only the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi could rid the state of these challenges.
Religious conversion has become a central and highly active issue for the BJP in Punjab, serving as a primary plank in its campaign strategy for the assembly elections by March 2027.
The party is utilizing the issue to build a broader base in the Sikh-majority state and a province where BJP's growth journey always faced a limitation.
Shah formally launched the party's election campaign at a rally in Moga, explicitly promising that the BJP's first legislative act if voted to power would be to introduce a strict anti-conversion bill.
Three BJP-ruled states Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Assam have already passed the Bill.
In Punjab, BJP frames conversions by evangelical and Christian groups as a "major social anxiety," alleging that vulnerable groups and Dalits are being targeted through coercion or financial inducement.
The Lotus party argues that unregulated religious conversions in a sensitive, border state carry wider security and demographic implications. The BJP leaders have also raised concerns about potential foreign funding.
In 2023, a section of the Pentecostal community has launching a political outfit — the United Punjab Party — announced from inside Pastor Harpreet Deol’s church in Khojewal village. A Pentecostal Christian Parbandhak (Managing) Committee — modelled on the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), which acts as the apex governing body for Sikh shrines, had already been floated.
The Punjabi language press framed the Christian political assertion in more combative terms — of communities historically at the margin staking a claim to the political center.
The RSS’ reading of the Punjab situation is even sharper as it treats Christianity’s spread among the Dalits or formerly untouchable communities not as a spiritual movement but as a demographic threat and a foreign intervention.
Punjab BJP Vice President Subhash Sharma has written to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, urging the state government to enact a stringent law to prevent religious conversions in Punjab.
He said the increasing reports of religious conversions in the state are a matter of concern and require immediate attention.
In his letter, Sharma stated that several states in India have already enacted laws regulating religious conversions, but Punjab is yet to introduce similar legislation.
He urged the government to frame a law aimed at preventing forced or inducement-based conversions.
The BJP is preparing to go solo across all constituencies.
Kewal Singh Dhillon, a prominent Jat Sikh from the politically crucial Malwa belt, is the new Punjab BJP chief.
The party has aggressively expanded its base by inducting influential leaders from rival factions, including former Congress state heads and prominent AAP architects.
Dalit and Dera Outreach:
With Scheduled Caste voters making up nearly a third of Punjab's population, the BJP is actively courting major socio-religious sects (Deras)—such as paying high-profile respects at sacred pilgrimage sites like Sachkhand Ballan Dera.
To counter lingering farmer distrust from previous farm law agitations, the party promises crop diversification and Minimum Support Price (MSP) assurances for 21 crops to help farmers transition away from the saturated wheat-paddy cycle.
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Shah and other BJP leaders have been able to strike at the right raw nerve -- the legacy of the Sikh Gurus.
The Sikh Gurus had all fought and sacrificed their lives against forcible conversion by Muslims. Therefore, the BJP's new electoral plank is banking on an old RSS line --- the Hindu-Sikh unity is the bedrock of Punjab’s peace and progress.
The BJP is actually able to drive people to seek "alternatives" to institutions that have failed them. This has left Christian organisations exposed and unnerved and all sorts of distortion campaign is on now by Church-related NGOs and a political section to discredit BJP.
The local media gave the Moga rally of Amit Shah extensive coverage and this upset the AAP too.
Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who has been in power in Punjab since 2022, called BJP's game-plan a vote-bank politics.
Daljit Singh Cheema, a senior leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), a Sikh-centric regional political party, noted that Sikh scripture upholds religious freedom.
Religious conversions have always emerged as a key and a major political plank in Punjab.
Amritpal Singh, a self-styled Sikh preacher, made news in 2023-24.
He was also detained under the National Security Act. But he was elected to parliament in 2024. He is a member in the Lok Sabha representing the constituency of Khadoor Sahib.
Dakha MLA Manpreet Singh Ayali's move to align with Waris Punjab De ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections next year is being seen as a marked shift in the state's politics.
His decision not only marks a break from the Shiromani Akali Dal (Punar Surjit) faction but also deepens the crisis within the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal), signalling a steady erosion of its traditional Panthic base.
Ayali, once among the most trusted lieutenants of SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal during the party's peak, had already been distancing himself from the leadership.
India has always faced "pull" by two different religious-ideological camps: one a Hindu majoritarian -- that wanted the new nation to be 'civilisational' and the other was pro-Muslim.
Punjab has offered a new dimension. In the eighties it saw violence and Khalistani-related violence hat hit Punjab and various parts of north India.
The election in Punjab in 2027 will be more than just exciting. It will have a geo-political impact too.
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