Chandigarh: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday put the drug issue firmly at the centre of the BJP’s campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections, promising to eliminate the illicit trade in chitta from Punjab by December 31, 2029, if the BJP forms the government in the state.
Addressing the concluding rally of the BJP’s 13 day Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra at Paragpur in Jalandhar, Shah said the BJP would fight the coming Assembly election primarily on the issue of a drug free Punjab. He appealed to Punjab’s mothers and youth to support the BJP and said that after December 31, 2029, there would be no one left to supply chitta to the state’s children.
But alongside Shah’s political message, the turnout at the Jalandhar rally has emerged as another talking point. The gathering appeared considerably smaller than the crowd seen at Shah’s previous Moga rally in March, despite the BJP making extensive arrangements and projecting a massive turnout for the Jalandhar event.
The comparison is particularly relevant because the Jalandhar rally was not an ordinary BJP programme. It was planned as the culmination of a state-wide campaign that covered all 117 Assembly constituencies and nearly 4,000 km through four simultaneous routes.
Before the Jalandhar rally, BJP leaders had projected a turnout of around two lakh people. The party had prepared a venue spread across roughly 60 to 65 acres near NH 44 at Paragpur and made arrangements for thousands of buses and vehicles. Reports said more than 2,000 buses were expected to bring supporters from different parts of Punjab. But the public turnout has barely crossed 2,000.
The Moga rally, held on March 14 at Killi Chahlan, had been used by the BJP to formally sound its election bugle for the 2027 Punjab Assembly polls. Following that rally, Punjab BJP general secretary Anil Sarin claimed that 1,58,131 people had attended the event. The BJP also claimed that its mobilisation involved 3,793 buses and thousands of other vehicles. The attendance figure was a BJP claim and was not independently verified.
The visible difference between the Moga rally and the Jalandhar rally therefore becomes significant. The BJP had spent 13 days taking its anti-drug message across Punjab and had brought almost its entire national leadership into the campaign. Yet the concluding rally did not appear to produce a gathering comparable to the crowd claimed for the Moga rally.
This is also notable because the BJP had itself been facing questions about public participation during the Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra. Reports during the campaign pointed to uneven crowd response at several locations, while opposition leaders questioned whether the campaign was generating the mass support expected by the party.
Shah turns drug free Punjab into BJP’s central election plank
Shah’s speech in Jalandhar was largely built around drugs, governance and the BJP’s claim that it could provide a decisive response to Punjab’s narcotics problem.
He said Punjab was known across the country for two major contributions. Its farmers had repeatedly filled the country’s food stocks, while its soldiers had made sacrifices for the country’s security.
He argued that Punjab could not achieve real development unless its youth were freed from drugs.
Shah accused the Aam Aadmi Party government of allowing the chitta trade to flourish openly. He said the coming Punjab election would have several issues, but the BJP would fight the election primarily around the promise of a Nasha Mukt Punjab.
He also said that the BJP had demonstrated its ability to deal with major security challenges, referring to the Modi government’s claims of tackling terrorism in Kashmir, Naxalism and insurgency in the Northeast. He argued that the next challenge was to make Punjab free of chitta.
Shah said Punjab’s economic development would remain difficult as long as its young people continued to be affected by drugs. He described addiction as a threat to future generations and said a strong system was required to prevent drugs from reaching young people.
Attack on AAP government
Shah also used the rally to question several promises made by the Bhagwant Mann government.
He asked the Punjab government what had happened to its promise of 25 lakh new jobs. He also questioned the government over its promise to increase widow pensions to Rs 2,500 and its commitment to increase annual mining revenue by Rs 20,000 crore.
Shah also referred to the promise of providing MSP on all crops. He contrasted Punjab with Haryana, saying the BJP government in Haryana had provided MSP on all crops, while Punjab had not fulfilled the promise.
Shah compares drug seizures under Congress and BJP governments
The Home Minister also sought to establish a contrast between the Congress led government at the Centre between 2004 and 2014 and the BJP led government from 2014 onwards.
Shah cited figures on narcotics seizures during the two periods, saying that around 26 lakh kg of drugs were seized between 2004 and 2014, while significantly larger quantities were seized during the 2014 to 2024 period under the Modi government.
A campaign covering every Assembly constituency
The Jalandhar rally was the culmination of a carefully structured BJP campaign yet unable to bring out massive public turnout as support.
The Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra began on September 18 with four separate routes. BJP national president Nitin Nabin launched one leg from Madhopur in Pathankot. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta launched another from Fatehgarh Sahib, Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal started another from Fazilka and Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan launched the fourth from Talwandi Sabo.
The Moga rally benchmark
The Jalandhar rally is difficult to view in isolation because Shah had already addressed a major BJP rally in Punjab earlier this year.
At the March 14 Moga rally, held at Killi Chahlan, Shah launched the BJP’s campaign for the 2027 Assembly elections. He announced that the BJP would contest the election independently and attacked the AAP government over drugs, law and order, corruption and governance.
The BJP later claimed that 1,58,131 people attended the Moga rally. It said its mobilisation covered thousands of villages and polling booths across Punjab.
Against that backdrop, the smaller visible gathering at the Jalandhar rally becomes a point of discussion for the BJP as it attempts to build a statewide organisation ahead of 2027.
At the same time, crowd size alone cannot establish electoral support. Political rallies depend on location, timing, transport arrangements, weather, local organisation and the nature of the event. No independently verified attendance figure for the Jalandhar rally was available in the reports reviewed.