Newly appointed Punjab Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Kewal Singh Dhillon on Thursday, 28 May declared that the party's next electoral target is Punjab, fresh off its victory in West Bengal, with the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections firmly in its sights. The 75-year-old Jat Sikh leader and former legislator, a close confidante of former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, was appointed by the BJP national president to replace Sunil Jakhar as state chief.

Key Developments

'After Bengal, it is now the turn of Punjab,' Dhillon said, signalling an aggressive push into a state where the BJP currently holds just two Assembly seats. Speaking to reporters in Chandigarh, he framed the appointment as a mission rather than a ceremonial post. 'I can't do any drama or crack jokes. My only goal is to work for Punjab's progress,' he said.

What Dhillon Said About Punjab's Challenges

Dhillon identified the drug menace, rising gangsterism, unemployment, and farmers' distress as the state's most pressing crises. He argued that BJP-governed states — 21 in total, according to him — have demonstrated a model of development that Punjab has been denied. 'Today, Punjab is suffering from drug menace, rise of gangsters, joblessness, farmers' issues, etc. The people of Punjab have seen that development is taking place in 21 states, wherever the BJP is in power. The same will take place here too when the BJP comes to power,' he said.

He also pointed to neighbouring Haryana, which he described as the first state in India to officially procure 24 crops at the Minimum Support Price (MSP), as a template for what a BJP government could deliver in Punjab. 'MSP will be granted, job opportunities will be provided, and semiconductor plants will also be set up,' he pledged.

Attack on Rival Parties

Dhillon trained his fire on the three parties that have governed Punjab in recent decades — the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Indian National Congress (Congress), and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). 'All these parties have destroyed Punjab; now only the BJP can uplift the state,' he said. He added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and BJP national President Nitin Nabin share a singular objective: making Punjab the country's top-ranked state.

The Arithmetic Challenge

When pressed on how the party plans to leapfrog from two seats to a majority in a 117-seat Assembly, Dhillon was unfazed. 'It is the people who will give us a majority mandate. They have decided that the next government will be of the BJP,' he said. Notably, the appointment of a Jat Sikh face is widely seen as a strategic recalibration, given that Jat Sikhs form a dominant voting bloc in the state and the party's previous state chief, Jakhar, was its prominent Hindu face.

What Comes Next

With the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections still roughly two years away, Dhillon has time to build organisational ground. His challenge is formidable: the BJP has historically struggled in Punjab without an alliance partner, and the AAP government under Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann retains a working majority. Whether the Bengal momentum translates to Punjab will depend heavily on how the party addresses the agrarian and law-and-order concerns that dominate the state's political conversation.