Chandigarh:
A day after the BJP launched its anti-drug yatra in Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party is set to formally kick off its 2027 Assembly election campaign with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in Ludhiana on Saturday. The launch comes a day after the Mann government announced an 8 per cent hike in Dearness Allowance (DA) for around eight lakh government employees and pensioners, giving AAP another issue to take to its crucial government employee constituency.
Mann will release AAP’s election campaign pamphlet in Ludhiana, with party leader Manish Sisodia announcing that the event will mark the beginning of the party’s statewide political outreach ahead of the polls.
The timing gives the AAP campaign an interesting political contrast. While the BJP is seeking to make Punjab’s drug crisis the central plank of its early campaign through the anti-drug yatra, AAP will enter the electoral arena with a combination of its government’s performance pitch, employee outreach and an aggressive booth level mobilisation.
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BJP president Nitin Nabin launched ‘Drug-Free Punjab Yatra’ in Pathankot on Friday
The DA announcement is particularly significant for AAP as government employees and pensioners constitute a large and politically important constituency. The government’s decision to increase DA by 8 per cent, along with Mann’s announcement of compulsory monthly meetings with employee representatives, comes amid a period when employee grievances had increasingly become a political challenge for the government.
AAP will seek to use the latest relief to change that conversation from protests and pending demands to dialogue and government action.
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From September 20, the party plans a statewide door-to-door campaign, deploying around 2.68 lakh booth committee members to visit households and highlight the Mann government’s work. Mann himself will lead the exercise in Dhuri, his Assembly constituency.
The party will simultaneously launch a membership drive, suggesting that the campaign is aimed not just at projecting the government’s achievements but also at strengthening AAP’s organisational machinery at the grassroots ahead of the 2027 contest.
With the BJP beginning its anti-drug campaign and AAP launching its election machinery within a day, Punjab’s 2027 electoral contest is moving from early political positioning towards visible ground mobilisation.
