Union Home Minister Amit Shah will visit Punjab on October 20, BJP leader Ravneet Singh Bittu announced on Sunday, signalling the Centre’s continued focus on the state’s drug crisis ahead of the 2027 assembly elections.
Bittu, a former Union Minister, confirmed the visit in a post on X but stopped short of sharing a full itinerary. “Punjab welcomes Hon’ble Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah Ji on his visit to Punjab on 20th October,” he wrote.
He added that the state was “battling the grave menace of drugs” and required “decisive action, strong leadership and a firm resolve to secure our youth and our future.” Bittu also accused the AAP Government of having “lost its mandate much before the completion of its term” and appealed to residents to support Shah’s efforts to make Punjab drug-free. Party sources indicated that Shah is likely to travel to Mansa and Sangrur. In Mansa, he is expected to meet the family of anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhota, who was shot dead on October 13 inside a medical store in a busy marketplace.
Jhota had confronted the shop owner, Ashwani Kumar, over the alleged sale of addictive substances to an older man. The incident was captured on video, triggered widespread protests including a statewide bandh, and led to Kumar’s arrest in Rajasthan. In Sangrur, Shah is likely to meet the family of Gulzar Singh, a daily-wage worker from Dirba who died by suicide after publicly raising concerns about the easy availability of drugs in the presence of Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema.
These meetings come after the Ministry of Home Affairs sought detailed reports from the Punjab Government on the Jhota killing, the death of Gulzar Singh, and the October 15 killing of Bikramjit Singh in Gurdaspur, which was also linked by local accounts to opposition against drug peddling. Shah has previously questioned the AAP Government’s handling of law and order, citing both the Jhota murder and Gulzar Singh’s suicide.
This will be Shah’s second visit to the state within a month. On September 30, he addressed a rally in Jalandhar that marked the culmination of the BJP’s “Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra,” a campaign that covered all 117 assembly constituencies. During that trip, he met families affected by drug addiction and reiterated a commitment to eliminate the problem by December 2029 if the BJP forms the next Government in Punjab. The planned visit underscores the BJP’s strategy of keeping the drug issue at the centre of its political narrative in the state.
At the same time, the AAP Government has maintained that it is pursuing a zero-tolerance approach and has pointed to the Centre’s responsibilities on border security and inter-state trafficking. Shah’s engagements with the families of Jhota and Gulzar Singh are expected to intensify further the political contest over accountability for drug-related violence and deaths in Punjab.