CHANDIGARH: With the 2027 Punjab Assembly polls approaching, a new not-for-profit platform, ‘Opinion of Punjab’, has been launched to identify, support and promote “next-generation political leaders” across the state.
The initiative aims to nurture leadership from villages to the state and national levels by helping ordinary citizens enter mainstream politics through training, local agenda work, visibility and technology-backed organisation.
The platform, founded by former AAP and Congress leader Himanshu Pathak, focuses on building leadership capacity rather than controlling leaders. People associated with the initiative may later join political parties, contest independently or continue as public-agenda leaders and community organisers.
Speaking to this newspaper, Pathak said Punjab needs leaders with public trust rather than only election candidates. “We work on one central principle that the political agenda must come from people, not only from party high commands, consultants or closed-door political circles,” he said.
According to Pathak, the platform has already received over 1,400 registrations from people interested in contesting polls at different levels, including panchayat, municipal bodies, Assembly and Parliament.
More than 800 people have also joined awareness and activism teams across all 23 districts and 117 Assembly constituencies. “This early response shows Punjab has a strong pool of citizens willing to participate in public life beyond the traditional ticket-seeking route,” he said.
Pathak claimed Punjab currently lacks enough constituency-level leaders with strong personal voter support and said the initiative aims to bridge this leadership gap through organised public engagement.