CHANDIGARH: For the first time ahead of the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has drawn up an ambitious plan for large-scale grassroots organisational expansion and micro-management across the state. The party plans to establish five circles in each of Punjab’s 117 Assembly constituencies and create an additional two-tier organisational structure comprising 622 circles and 6,425 sub-circles below the existing 25,332 booth-level committees. It also plans to form WhatsApp groups of around 250 people each at the booth level.
The BJP will also launch statewide anti-drug yatras from next month, covering all 117 Assembly constituencies. The campaign is expected to be one of the party’s major political programmes ahead of the polls and will seek to make the drug menace a central electoral issue.
Sources in the party said the organisational blueprint was shared with the state BJP leadership by the party’s national general secretary (organisation), B. L. Santosh, who concludes his two-day visit to Punjab today. The state unit has been asked to establish the three-tier organisational structure by September 30 and make it fully operational by October 31.
Each of the 622 circles will cover around 40 booths. The party has also been directed to ensure that all 25,000-plus booth-level committees are made operational, with representation for youth, women and marginalised sections. Leaders have additionally been asked to create WhatsApp groups comprising around 250 people at each booth.
The anti-drug campaign will begin next month and cover all 117 Assembly constituencies. Senior BJP leaders from the Centre are expected to lead the yatras at different locations across the state. Through the campaign, the party plans to take the issue of drug abuse directly to voters and make it a prominent part of its electoral narrative. Santosh has reportedly spoken in closed-door meetings about the “easy availability of drugs” in the state.
During his two-day visit, Santosh held a series of organisational meetings with party leaders and workers in Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar. He urged workers to take the BJP’s policies and issues to the people through every available platform and reviewed the party’s preparations for the Assembly elections, including its organisational activities and local political equations.
The party is also expected to make Punjab’s high financial debt, the migration of local industry to neighbouring Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, non-payment of dearness allowance to government employees and its ongoing outreach to the Ravidassia community key elements of its electoral strategy and narrative.
Santosh also urged party workers to participate in large numbers in programmes being organised under the ‘Samrasta Sankalp Abhiyan’ to mark the 650th birth anniversary of Sant Ravidas and to take his teachings to every household.
Sources said Santosh stressed the need to maintain internal discipline and resolve differences within the party, emphasising that unity would be essential to winning the elections. In an apparent reference to tensions following recent organisational appointments, he compared new leaders joining the party to brides and said the responsibility of accepting them as daughters-in-law rested with the elders of the family. He said the party’s old-timers were the foundation of the BJP family in Punjab and that their dignity and honour must be maintained.
The message of solidarity between the old guard and new entrants came against the backdrop of reported friction over recent organisational appointments. With only five months remaining before the state goes to the polls, Santosh called upon party workers to build a strong team and ensure that the BJP’s message, ideology and achievements reach every household.
The BJP, which has repeatedly announced that it will contest the Punjab Assembly elections on its own, faces a twin challenge. While expanding its grassroots presence, particularly in rural Punjab, the party will also need to provide greater political space to Sikh leaders and representatives from different sections of society. At the same time, it is seeking to rebuild its village-level organisation and support base, which weakened considerably during the years of militancy in the state.