CHANDIGARH: With less than six months left for the 2027 Punjab elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will commence its ground connect with the people of Punjab from Friday, as Union Agriculture, Farmers' Welfare and Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has a day-long programme in Amritsar tomorrow.
In the coming days, other Union ministers will also gradually come and engage the electorate of the state. Besides, the state unit has been told to organise community listening sessions for the monthly radio address, “Mann Ki Baat”, of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at all the 25,332 polling booths across the state by November.
The first visit in a series of Union ministerial visits planned for the state is that of Chouhan, who will reach Amritsar later today and has a day-long programme in the holy city tomorrow. His key event is his engagement with farmers at Baba Bakala's Umra Nangal village.
Chouhan would start his day tomorrow with prayers at the Golden Temple and then proceed to Baba Bakala for ‘Kisan Chaupal’, where he will take note of farmers’ concerns.
Also, he will visit Gurdwara Baba Bakala, which commemorates the ninth Sikh Guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur, who laid down his life to uphold the freedom of faith of Kashmiri Pandits at the height of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb's repressive regime.
The ground connect plan, which is scheduled to begin from Friday, and the blueprint in this regard were shared with the state BJP leadership by the saffron party’s national general secretary (organisation), BL Santosh, who wound up his Punjab visit yesterday. In the coming days, other Union ministers will also gradually come and engage the electorate of the state.
Also, the BJP has directed its Punjab unit to organise community listening sessions for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s monthly ‘Mann Ki Baat’ radio address at all 25,000-plus polling booths by November 30, aiming to mobilise voters ahead of the 2027 state Assembly elections.
The state leadership has been told to organise community listening sessions of the August 30 edition at all the sub-circles; at 50 per cent of polling booths by the September edition, 75 per cent of booths by the October edition and at 100 per cent of booths by the November edition. These instructions were issued by BJP national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh during a recent two-day organisational review in Punjab.
A BJP functionary said the nomenclature of party organisations called ‘mandals’ was rechristened as circles and ‘shakti kendras’ as sub-circles about five months ago. The saffron party’s drive seeks to strengthen booth-level infrastructure, connect with households and consolidate the party’s core voting base in an expected multi-cornered contest. The district presidents were questioned regarding past compliance and personal listenership of the broadcast.
