AAP govt under pressure, BJP lays out a Punjab plan, with message of ‘governance, leadership’

After Shah launches the yatra next month, BJP president J P Nadda will be in the state to kick off other programmes. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also expected to visit soon, said sources. It’s the right time for the party “to deliver its message of good governance, nationalism and decisive leadership”, a leader said.

“The BJP is getting into aggressive mode as part of its preparation for the next Lok Sabha polls,” as per another leader.

With the Akali Dal snapping ties with the BJP over the farm laws ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections, the BJP will be contesting the Lok Sabha polls on its own for the first time in the state. In 2019, with anger against the Akalis running high, the BJP had won only two seats in the partnership, Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur, with 9.63% of the votes.

Its tie-up with smaller parties such as former Congress leader Amarinder Singh’s Punjab Lok Congress (which later merged with the BJP) had not yielded much fruit in the 2022 Assembly polls. In 2017, the BJP had contested 23 seats in its alliance with the Akalis and won 3; in 2022, it contested 73 seats on its own but won only 2.

However, despite the dismal performance over the years, the BJP focus on the state – an ideological and strategic frontier for it – has never wavered. During the 2022 Assembly elections, the BJP repeatedly raised apprehensions about the “dangers” of an AAP government coming to power in the border state. Accusing AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal of “compromising with a terrorist organisation”, over some meetings he had, Nadda had told The Indian Express: “We see things in terms of the 600-km border of India, national security.”

BJP Lok Sabha MP Parvesh Verma had then called Kejriwal a “terrorist”.

A BJP MP told The Indian Express that their concerns regarding the AAP “have been proven right now”. “We always feared how it would handle a law and order situation in a sensitive state. What a mess it has created in Punjab now.”

On the BJP planning programmes in the state, the MP said: “Being a responsible national party, it’s our duty to see to it that things do not get further complicated.”

As the Union Home Minister, with the narcotics agencies handling the drug problem as well as security agencies looking at external and internal threats under him, plus given his “hands on” image, Shah will send the “right message” to the cadre as well as the electorate, the BJP feels.

“People in Punjab were already uneasy over the drug menace, especially after they found that the AAP is a failure. Recent developments have created further confusion in their minds,” a party leader familiar with the party functioning in Punjab said, adding that Shah would bring “clarity”.

The AAP has been trying to pass the buck to the Centre, claiming that its warnings related to the rise of Amritpal Singh had been “deliberately” ignored by the latter. A Punjab AAP leader alleged a political design of the BJP in this.

However, BJP leaders dismiss this. Asked specifically about whether the Centre had taken note of some of the inflammatory statements made by Amritpal, a Union minister had said in November: “It’s a law and order issue, let the state handle it. I am sure the Centre is keeping a watch.”