BJP bets on Jat Sikh card with Dhillon’s appointment as Punjab chief

Ahead of the 2027 assembly elections in Punjab, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday, May 28, 2026, appointed Kewal Singh Dhillon as its new state president, hoping to continue the momentum of recent election victories in West Bengal, Assam and Puducherry in Punjab.

Mr Dhillon, who joined the BJP in 2022, replaced Sunil Jakhar, who was also a former Congress leader. Mr Dhillon had won Congress MLA from Barnala constituency in 2007 and 2012. However, he lost the 2017 Assembly elections. He left the Congress in June 2022 and joined the BJP. He later unsuccessfully contested the Sangrur Lok Sabha by-election as a BJP candidate.

The saffron party has historically struggled to make headway in Punjab, but has been aggressively building its campaign momentum lately to gain a foothold in the border state. In Punjab’s ‘Jat Sikh’ dominated politics, the appointment of Mr. Dhillon, a Jat Sikh face, is seen as the latest attempt to consolidate his position within the community, pushing for his expansion across the State. The total 117 seats in the state come from the ‘politically’ important Malwa region, comprising 69 Assembly constituencies.

This move is considered as part of the BJP’s broader effort to consolidate its ‘pro-Sikh’ identity, which it has been following by propagating the steps taken by the Central government in the interests of Sikhs since 2014. The party is already giving aid to Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Dalits to unravel another case of ‘social engineering’ to strengthen the State. To achieve its goals on its own, in March this year, Union Minister Amit Shah had sounded the party’s poll trumpet at the ‘Badlav rally’ in Moga and declared that the party would contest the Assembly elections in Punjab on its own.

Meanwhile, the party appointed Archana Gupta as president of its Haryana unit, replacing Mohan Lal Badoli. Ms. Gupta is a radiologist from Panipat. He served as the state general secretary of the party in Haryana.

The appointments were made by BJP national president Nitin Naveen and came with immediate effect. The orders were given by Arun Singh, national general secretary and headquarters of the party.