Moga (Punjab), March 14 Virtually ending speculation about reviving the alliance with Shiromani Akali Dal, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said here on Saturday that the BJP will fight the 2027 elections in Punjab to form its own government.
Addressing a "Badlav" rally here, Shah said the BJP, in a way, has launched its poll campaign today from Moga for the assembly polls early next year. "I have come to appeal to the people of Punjab to give us your blessings," the Union minister said, seeking support for his party.
With the BJP earlier having been part of the government in Punjab as a junior partner to the Akalis, Shah, without naming any party, told the gathering, "Whenever we came before you, we came in the role of a younger brother. We could not have formed the government (on our own)".
"But today I am saying that in the 2027 elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party will fight to form its government in Punjab," he said.
Addressing the rally in the Killi Chahlan village here, Shah said that Punjab has given many opportunities to Congress, Akalis and AAP, and should now give the BJP a chance.
"We will bring change in Punjab," he said.
Shah said that in 2024, the BJP got "19 per cent votes. And it is our track record, where the BJP gets 19 per cent of the vote, the next government formed there is of the BJP. And this happened in Odisha, Assam, Manipur, Tripura, Uttarakhand, and now it is the turn of Punjab".
The Shiromani Akali Dal had snapped its 24-year-old alliance with the BJP in September 2020 over the now-scrapped three farm laws. At present, the BJP has two MLAs in the 117-member House.
Prior to the end of their electoral alliance, both Akalis and the BJP used to fight together. Under their poll pact, the BJP used to contest 23 seats and the SAD 94 assembly seats.
In parliamentary polls, the SAD used to fight for 10 seats and the BJP would contest three.
The SAD-BJP combine formed the government in the state thrice --1997-2002, 2007-12, and 2012-17.
Addressing the gathering, Shah, who donned a saffron turban, asked the audience to raise their hands in support, while telling them that the BJP will form the government in Punjab in 2027.
He said that if anybody can free the state from drug menace and other problems, it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party.
"Today, Punjab has been destroyed due to debt, drugs, religious conversions, corruption and terror of gangsters," Shah said.
"I have come to seek blessings from the people of Punjab, including mothers, sisters and the elderly. Give us your blessings. If there is anyone who can rid the state of the drug menace, it is only Narendra Modi and the BJP," he said.
"And we have done it. We scrapped Article 370 in J&K. Today, Naxalism is on the verge of its end. If Punjab has to be rid of the drug menace, it needs BJP's double-engine government," he said.
The BJP fought the 2022 assembly polls in alliance with the SAD (Sanyukt) and former chief minister Amarinder Singh's Punjab Lok Congress, which was later merged with the BJP.
The BJP unsuccessfully contested all 13 parliamentary seats in 2024. Its vote share increased from 9.6 per cent in 2019 to nearly 19 per cent in 2024.
The state BJP leaders have been maintaining that the BJP was preparing to fight all 117 assembly seats in Punjab.