Drug menace dominates BJP’s poll campaign in Punjab as it cuts across caste, religion, age

The drug menace in Punjab has stayed at the center stage of political and social attention over the past more than a decade and because it cuts across caste, religion and age, it appears to have become the key poll campaign focus for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the run-up to the impending Assembly election.

With an eye on the Assembly election, which is due in early 2027, the BJP is busy with its ‘Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatras’ campaign, which began on September 18, under which party leaders and workers have started four separate marches (Yatras) from different locations to cover all 117 Assembly constituencies of Punjab before culminating the campaign in Jalandhar on September 30, where Home Minister Amit Shah is expected to address a rally.

The saffron party, which has historically struggled to make inroads in Punjab, is aggressively pushing its campaign around the drug menace issue to get a foothold in the border State. In March this year, Mr. Shah, who sounded the party’s poll-bugle at the ‘Badlav rally’ in Moga, sought a chance to form the next government, promising that the BJP will free Punjab from the scourge of drugs within two years.

The drug menace has remained a central political and social issue in Punjab for years and despite promises to eradicate it, the successive governments have failed to successfully address the problem. Before the 2017 Assembly elections, then Congress leader Captain Amarinder Singh had, under oath of ‘Gutka Sahib’ (a small book with sacred verses from Guru Granth Sahib), promised the people of the State to stamp out the menace of drugs within four weeks of assuming power. The Congress ruled from 2017 to 2022, yet the drug problem remained. The AAP made a similar promise in 2022, saying it would end the drug menace within four months of after forming the government. Four and a half years later, the problem continues to plague the State.

The Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP have also faced public wrath over the drug menace, when, as alliance partners, they ruled the State from 2007 to 2017. The opponents accused them of letting the illegal drug trade flourish under their regime.

With Assembly elections nearing, the drug menace is one big issue that political and social observers believe can mobilise emotion and votes simultaneously, since addiction has touched a significant number of households in Punjab. Pointing to substance abuse, health and social surveys have noted that Punjab could have people between 1 lakh to 2.7 lakh who were dependent on opioids. Findings from the study in 2017, which was carried out over the preceding two years, titled ‘Epidemiology of Substance Use and Dependence in the state of Punjab’, released by the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, revealed that about one in every 87 persons was dependent on drugs.

It is widely felt among political observers that the drug menace is an issue that cuts across caste, religion and age. Parents, especially elderly women, are quite vocal about the drug problem and they influence family voting patterns. The BJP is targeting that emotional angle, besides they are correlating the drug menace issue to the law and order failure to corner the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on the governance front.

While the AAP is attempting to garner votes by shaping its campaign on schemes such as providing 300 units of free electricity every month to every household, providing ₹1,000 to ₹1,500 monthly cash stipends to adult women, free treatment of up to ₹10 lakh to every family, among other offers, the BJP is seen trying to build a narrative surrounding the State’s poor law and order enforcement, to convey the message that the drug problem has ruined several families in ways, which can not be compensated by any amount of freebies.