BJP Launches Anti-Drug Yatras in Punjab Amid Political Clash

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has launched the Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra, a series of four marches covering nearly 4,000 kilometers across 117 Assembly constituencies. Started by BJP national president Nitin Nabin in Pathankot on September 18, the campaign aims to disrupt drug supply networks and rehabilitate addicts before concluding in Jalandhar on September 30.

On September 21, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan flagged off the fourth yatra from Talwandi Sabo in the Bathinda district. Chouhan pledged that if the BJP takes power in Punjab, the party will destroy drug supply channels and the properties of smugglers within six months. He accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government of protecting the drug mafia and claimed that instead of a development model, the state has seen a "Model of Drug Development."

In response, AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal argued that the fight against narcotics should begin at Mundra Port in Gujarat rather than in Punjab. The political conflict intensifies ahead of the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections, with the BJP citing the recent suicide of a Dalit labourer in Sangrur as evidence of the state's failure to address synthetic drug circulation.