BJP: To celebrate Maghi, which honors the sacrifice of the 40 “Muktas” (liberated ones) who gave their life in 1705 while against the Mughals, political gatherings by all of the main political parties have historically been held in the Punjabi town of Muktsar.

In a first, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced its intention to form the state’s government independently in March 2027 by hosting a large religious gathering in Muktsar on Wednesday in front of the party’s national and state officials.

According to political experts, the BJP’s participation at a platform also gave the impression that it was firmly rooted in Punjabi culture and “Punjabiyat” during the political conferences that typically draw thousands of followers to commemorate the day.

According to them, the BJP has made it apparent via this event that it is getting ready to establish the government in 2027 without using any alliances as a “crutch.”

Both the state’s major opposition Congress and the governing Aam Aadmi Party are directly warned by this statement.

It’s interesting to note that the former is hosting the rally ten years after the latter was unable to stage a political gathering on the occasion.

The Badal family has always been seen as having strongholds in the Malwa area, which includes Muktsar, the home district of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chairman Sukhbir Badal.

The BJP is now transcending conventional political borders, as seen by the organization of such a large-scale gathering in the local villages.

Crowds of devotees from all across Punjab and neighboring states take a holy plunge at ancient gurdwaras in Muktsar during the three-day Maghi Mela, which ends on Thursday. This is mostly a day following Lohri.

According to a political expert who spoke to IANS, the BJP has shown that the Sikh community is now supporting the party by holding this event on the holy day of the Maghi Mela.

By emphasizing the BJP’s wider societal acceptability, the event also aims to refute the accusation that it is just an urban or Hindu-centric party.

The BJP held large public gatherings in Fazilka, Jalandhar Cantonment, Sujanpur, Samrala, and Fatehgarh Sahib to discuss the new rural employment scheme and to voice its opposition to the “misinformation” campaigns by the AAP and the Congress against the repealed Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

The BJP prominently provided relief materials during the state’s monsoon floods by sending out its central leadership and Union ministers, such as Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, who visited water-marooned fields in numerous Punjabi villages to assess crop losses and hear farmers’ complaints.

At the Amritsar airport, Governor Gulab Chand Kataria even paid Union Minister Chouhan a courtesy call and gave him a thorough update on the floods.

The party carried out door-to-door evaluations of losses during the floods, and necessary supplies were brought right to the doorsteps of impacted people.According to a senior BJP leader who spoke to IANS under condition of anonymity, “helping those affected by natural disasters is turning out to be a game changer for the party to strengthen its foothold in rural areas too, where on earlier occasions there had been noticeable dissent, mainly among farmers and farm laborers since three agricultural reform laws were repealed by the Modi government.”

He highlighted the BJP’s several flood relief camps in Jalandhar, which took center stage and demonstrated the scope of the relief effort.

Additionally, the BJP-ruled states of Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Goa provided financial support by sending relief supplies via trucks and trains and by making contributions to the Punjab Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.

On the political front, the BJP recently protested the government’s inability to keep its election pledges by organizing a sit-in and protests at over 500 venues around Punjab in a single day.

Through initiatives like the ‘Janta Vidhan Sabha’, marches to the Chief Minister’s home, and district-level demonstrations, the BJP is trying to connect with people on a grassroots level.