Daijiworld Media Network - Amritsar
Amritsar, Aug 27: With less than six months left for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to intensify its grassroots outreach in the state, beginning Friday with a day-long programme by Union Agriculture, Farmers' Welfare and Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Amritsar.
Chouhan will arrive in Amritsar on Thursday and begin his programme on Friday with prayers at the Golden Temple. He will then travel to Baba Bakala to participate in a ‘Kisan Chaupal’ at Umra Nangal village, where he will interact with farmers and hear their concerns.
He is also scheduled to visit Gurdwara Baba Bakala, associated with the ninth Sikh Guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur, who sacrificed his life in defence of religious freedom during the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's reign.
Chouhan's visit is the first in a series of programmes planned by Union ministers across Punjab in the run-up to the Assembly elections. Other Union ministers are expected to visit the state in the coming days and engage directly with voters.
The BJP's grassroots outreach plan was shared with the Punjab state leadership by party national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh during his two-day organisational review of the state, which concluded on Wednesday.
As part of its booth-level mobilisation strategy, the BJP has also directed its Punjab unit to organise community listening sessions for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's monthly radio programme ‘Mann Ki Baat’ across all 25,332 polling booths in the state by November 30.
The party has set a phased target for expanding the programme. Community listening sessions for the August 30 edition will be organised at all sub-circles. The target is to cover 50 per cent of polling booths by the September edition, 75 per cent by the October edition and all polling booths by the November edition.
The instructions were issued by Santhosh during the organisational review, with district presidents also questioned about compliance with earlier directions and their personal listenership of ‘Mann Ki Baat’.
A BJP functionary said the party had renamed its organisational units known as ‘mandals’ as circles and ‘shakti kendras’ as sub-circles around five months ago.
The BJP's campaign is aimed at strengthening its booth-level organisation, increasing contact with households and consolidating its core voter base ahead of what is expected to be a multi-cornered contest in the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections.