Nitin Nabin tones up BJP’s preparations for 2027 elections

Starting with a three-day visit to Uttarakhand on Thursday, BJP president Nitin Nabin has hit the ground to tone up the party’s preparations for the assembly polls to be held in seven states next year.

During his stay in Uttarakhand, Nabin will hold a series of meetings with the BJP leaders and workers, and seek their feedback on the party’s poll preparations in the state.

The BJP chief, who will call on Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami during his visit, will also hold a meeting with state ministers to discuss poll preparations and get their feedback, sources said.

“The BJP national president’s visit to Uttarakhand is the beginning. He will visit all other states, one after another, where elections are due next year.

“In each of these states, he will stay for about three days and hold meetings with party workers and leaders, including MLAs, and get their feedback. This series will continue now,” a source in the party said.

“The BJP chief has already set in motion the party’s poll preparations. He will now undertake visits to all the poll-bound states to tone up the party’s preparations and fine-tune its poll strategy,” the source added.

It is learnt that in the states where the BJP is in power, Nabin will also meet ministers, MLAs and senior party leaders apart from party office-bearers to discuss the party’s poll strategy and get their feedback.

Assembly polls in Goa, Gujarat, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh are due to be held in 2027. Except Punjab, the BJP is in power in the remaining states. The sources said Nabin has started the BJP’s poll preparations early so that the party remains “completely prepared” when the time for elections comes.

The BJP chief on Thursday appointed Sardar Kewal Singh Dhillon as the party’s Punjab unit president. The appointment of Dhillon, a Sikh, as the BJP’s Punjab unit chief indicates the party’s intent to strongly fight the state assembly polls due next year.

According to the sources, some state BJP leaders had been pushing for a Sikh face to lead the Punjab unit of the party.

The BJP has already started preparations for the 2027 Punjab assembly polls hoping to dislodge the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government from power in the state.

Dhillon, a two-time former Congress MLA from Barnala, had joined the BJP in 2022 and was subsequently appointed vice president of the state unit of the party.

He is considered a close confidant of former Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, who had also joined the BJP in 2022, about a year after his bitter parting with the Congress.