The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will deploy more than 2.68 lakh booth committee members in a statewide door-to-door campaign beginning September 20, taking the Bhagwant Mann government's four-and-a-half-year report card directly to voters as the ruling party steps up preparations for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections.
Announcing the campaign on Friday, AAP Punjab affairs in-charge Manish Sisodia said Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann would personally begin the outreach from his Dhuri constituency. The party will also launch a membership drive, while Mann is scheduled to release its election campaign pamphlet in Ludhiana on September 19, setting out the broad framework and messaging for the coming campaign.
The announcement comes as political mobilisation gathers momentum in Punjab, with the BJP launching its 4,000-km ‘Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra’ on Friday. AAP's parallel grassroots exercise indicates an early intensification of the political contest ahead of the Assembly election due next year.
Booth-level mobilisation
Addressing a press conference alongside Punjab AAP president Aman Arora and working president Amansher Singh Sherry Kalsi, Sisodia said 2,68,553 booth committee members would participate in the campaign across Punjab's 25,332 polling booths.
Party workers, ministers and booth-level leaders will visit households over the coming weeks to present the government's record and explain its welfare and development programmes. The exercise is also aimed at strengthening AAP's organisational network through a simultaneous membership campaign.
Sisodia said the party would focus on the government's work in education, healthcare, agriculture, employment, sports and trade. He cited canal water and daytime electricity supply for farmers, improvements in government schools and measures aimed at checking fee-related practices in private schools among the initiatives that workers would take to voters.
AAP will also highlight employment initiatives and sports facilities for young people while seeking to build its campaign around what it describes as a record of clean governance.
₹1.82 lakh claim
Sisodia claimed the Mann government had fulfilled its major guarantees made before the 2022 Assembly election, including commitments related to electricity and water. He further claimed that the government's measures were providing an average Punjab household benefits worth ₹1.82 lakh annually, or more than ₹15,000 a month.
The figures form part of AAP's political messaging and will be among the claims taken to households during the campaign.
The party will also use the outreach to draw comparisons with previous governments. Sisodia accused earlier administrations of contributing to Punjab's financial difficulties and failing to contain the drug problem, allegations that have long been contested by rival parties.
Arora said the organisational machinery would now be tasked with communicating the government's record directly to people. He said AAP's 2.68 lakh volunteers would explain its policies and programmes at the household level rather than relying only on large political rallies.
Drug issue heats up
The timing of AAP's announcement is significant, coming alongside the BJP's statewide anti-drug mobilisation. BJP national president Nitin Nabin launched the party's ‘Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra’ from Pathankot on Friday, with four routes scheduled to cover all 117 Assembly constituencies before culminating in Jalandhar on September 30.
Sisodia targeted the BJP over the campaign and questioned its record on the drug problem during the period when the party shared power with the Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab. The BJP, meanwhile, has accused the Mann government of failing to eliminate the narcotics network despite making the issue a central part of AAP's political campaign.
The competing campaigns bring Punjab's drug problem, governance record and economic situation firmly into the emerging electoral battle, with both parties seeking to expand their ground-level presence well before the 2027 election.
Mann begins from Dhuri
For AAP, the September 20 launch from Dhuri carries political significance as the constituency is represented by Mann. The Chief Minister's participation will formally begin an exercise designed to combine government performance messaging with organisational expansion.
The election pamphlet to be released a day earlier in Ludhiana will provide party workers with the principal issues and achievements to highlight during household visits.
With AAP activating more than 2.68 lakh booth-level members and simultaneously opening its membership drive, the ruling party is moving its campaign from government programmes to direct voter contact as Punjab enters the run-up to the next Assembly election.