For the BJP, every election begins long before the campaign officially starts. This has been witnessed in several states, including West Bengal, that were bound for elections, and now it’s Punjab’s turn. In a state where the saffron party has historically struggled to emerge as a dominant force, the groundwork for the 2027 polls is underway. For decades, the BJP chose to play a second fiddle to its longtime regional ally, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), in Punjab. But now with the Akalis having parted ways, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) facing growing anti-incumbency, and the Congress trapped in internal discord, the BJP is staring at its best opportunity in Punjab in years. Leading this ambitious push of the BJP is Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, who is emerging as the saffron party’s key political bridge into Punjab.
The Haryana CM has been visiting Punjab nearly every week since 2025, and the frequency of these visits has increased since 2026. Saini’s visits are being observed as part of the BJP’s outreach to solidify its cadre and gain more seats in the 2027 Assembly election.
The saffron party currently holds only two seats in the 117-member Punjab Assembly and has no Lok Sabha MP from the state.
It is understood that the BJP lacks big faces in Punjab, but why pick Nayab Singh Saini for the push?
The Hatyana CM is from the Saini community that is influential in Punjab, and his mother is a non-Jat Sikh. Punjabi is Saini’s mother tongue, and he can be heard addressing crowds in Punjab in fluent Punjabi.
“Positioning Nayab Singh Saini for the BJP’s Punjab outreach is the right strategy,” Ashutosh Kumar, professor of political science at Panjab University, told India Today Digital. “Saini belongs to the OBC community and has no ties with the farmers’ movement of 2020. Also, Saini is not being seen as an outsider, but rather is being viewed as a political bridge for the BJP,” Kumar added.
BJP’s ATTEMPT TO CONSOLIDATE NON-JAT VOTERS FOR PUNJAB ELECTION 2027
The BJP’s calculation for Punjab is rooted in both symbolism and social engineering. Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini belongs to the Saini community, an OBC group with a sizeable presence in Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan, particularly in the Doaba belt.
The Doaba belt is also known as the “NRI Hub” of Punjab, as it features the state’s largest concentration of Non-Resident Indians and is a major centre for Dalit politics.
Saini’s mother, Kulwant Kaur, is a non-Jat Sikh, and in Punjab, the Haryana chief minister is frequently seen wearing a saffron turban and speaking Punjabi fluently. The saffron turban has been constant in Saini’s Punjab outreach. The chief minister is seen wearing it every time he is in Punjab. This imagery makes Saini build a perception that he is someone from the inside.
“Saini can move across both Hindu and Sikh social spaces without appearing politically imported,” professor Kumar said, explaining why the BJP considers him a natural fit for Punjab outreach.
According to several news reports, the BJP’s larger strategy is to replicate the “Haryana model” in Punjab.
The model of building a coalition of non-Jat Other Backward Communities (OBCs), Dalits, and upper-caste Hindu voters, while attempting to bypass the traditional dominance of Jat Sikh politics, is what the saffron party is working on.
This same formula made the BJP victorious in the 2024 Haryana election, despite the state being politically Jat-dominant.
Punjab’s caste calculus makes the non-Jat voter consolidation strategy significant for the BJP. The OBC communities account for nearly 31% of the state’s population, while Dalits make up around 32%. The size of both these communities is among the highest proportions in any Indian state.
The BJP believes that if it successfully mobilises these sections along with upper-caste Hindu voters such as Khatris and Aroras, the party can emerge as a serious contender for power in the state in the 2027 Assembly election.
WHY NAYAB SINGH SAINI IS BEST SUITED FOR BJP’S STRATEGY
Saini is the perfect choice for non-Jat social coalition attempt of the BJP. From 2025, Saini has attended several community events, met delegations from deprived Scheduled Caste (SC) groups, visited gurdwaras, and participated in programmes involving the OBC and the Dalit communities. In April, he met a delegation of the Dhanak community from Punjab in Chandigarh, where issues such as unemployment and lack of political representation were raised.
The BJP has also carefully crafted Saini’s image as a soft-spoken administrator with a clean reputation.
Punjab has historically rejected leaders perceived as outsiders parachuted into the state, and the BJP believes that Saini’s cultural familiarity with Punjab will help the party avoid this trap. The Haryana chief minister has visited the state at least 70 times in the last seven months.
During his trips to Punjab, Saini visited gurdwaras, including Amritsar’s Golden Temple, Anandpur Sahib, Fatehgarh Sahib, and Machhiwara. He has also held several community meetings and rallies to consolidate non-Jat votes. The Haryana CM has also visited several industrial hubs of the state during his outreach for the BJP.
SAINI PROMISING HARYANA-STYLE GOOD GOVERNANCE IN PUNJAB
Saini has been constantly pitching that if the BJP comes to power in Punjab, it would introduce “Haryana-style good governance”, ensuring that deprived sections receive benefits such as housing, education, scholarships, healthcare, and land-related support on the Haryana model.
“Punjab today needs a double-engine government that not only makes promises but also can fulfil them. There is a need for leadership that is not afraid to make decisions, that places public welfare above everything else, and that works in the national interest,” Haryana chief minister said during his visit to Mandi Gobindgarh, one of Punjab’s key industrial hubs, on May 2.
“People of Punjab view Saini in a very friendly way. That is the reason he is smoothly continuing his regular visits to the state,” Kumar said. He also added that Haryana and Punjab have a historic political connection and similar kinds of outreach have been witnessed in the past.
“Parkash Singh Badal, the patriarch of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), would visit Haryana and support the Indian National Lok Dal’s Devi Lal. Both Badal and Lal were the Jat community’s prominent leaders,” Kumar added.
BJP WILL GO ALL OUT IN PUNJAB THIS TIME: EXPERTS
In March 2026, Union Home Minister Amit Shah declared that the BJP would no longer play the role of the “chota bhai” to the SAD. For the first time, the BJP is preparing to contest all 117 Assembly seats in Punjab independently.
Since the late 1990s, the BJP has contested only a limited number of seats under the alliance arrangement with SAD. In the 2022 Assembly election, the BJP contested 73 seats on its own after the alliance with SAD collapsed in the aftermath of the farmers’ protest.
According to political experts, the BJP is encouraged by its 19% vote share in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Even though the BJP couldn’t achieve a single seat, the vote share the saffron party received is quite significant. The BJP had previously built governments in states such as Haryana, Assam, and Manipur after initially starting with similar vote shares.
“This time, the BJP is going to be all out for the Punjab election. They have sensed an opportunity as SAD has weakened in the state and the ruling Aam Aadmi Party is in big trouble due to repeated ED and CBI raids. The BJP is looking ready for the 2027 polls,” Kumar told India Today Digital.
The scale and frequency of Saini’s visits show how seriously the BJP is treating Punjab this time. More than just a campaigner, the Haryana CM is being projected as the face of the BJP’s attempt to redraw Punjab’s political equations.
NAYAB SINGH SAINI TAKING ON BHAGWANT MANN DIRECTLY
Saini has been repeatedly attacking Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann over law and order, drugs, corruption, and governance failures in the state.
Following the low-intensity blasts near security establishments in Jalandhar and Amritsar on May 5, Saini launched a sharp attack on Mann after the Punjab CM alleged a larger BJP conspiracy behind the incidents. Saini claimed Mann had “lost his mental balance” and held the AAP government responsible for the deteriorating security situation in Punjab.
In multiple rallies and press conferences, Saini has further alleged that Punjab under the AAP has witnessed worsening law and order, unchecked drug menace, illegal mining, and an exodus of industries, positioning the BJP as a governance alternative in the state.
For the BJP, Nayab Singh Saini is more than just Haryana’s CM campaigning in a neighbouring state. He represents the party’s broader experiment to reshape Punjab politics through non-Jat social engineering, aggressive cadre expansion, and a direct challenge to the AAP and the weakened SAD. Whether the strategy succeeds in 2027 remains to be seen, but the message from the BJP is already clear — Punjab is no longer being treated as an ally-dependent state, but as the next major frontier the saffron party wants to conquer on its own strength.
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