Gurugram: The Aam Aadmi Social gathering (AAP) has skilled its weapons on Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, accusing him of attempting to poach its Sangrur MLA Narinder Kaur Bharaj forward of the 2027 Punjab Meeting elections.

Bharaj claimed Saini’s workplace reached out for a “closed-door assembly” and dangled a BJP ticket for her constituency, promising to fulfill “any demand” she had.

“Kaun Bharaj? Mujhe toh uska naam bhi nahin pata (who Bharaj? I don’t even know her title),” he mentioned.

The Haryana CM mentioned the costs had been “baseless” and “politically motivated”, including that the individuals of Punjab would give their verdict in 2027.

“If a BJP authorities is shaped, gangsterism will finish,” he asserted.

However the row has thrown a sharper gentle on one thing that has been constructing for months: Saini’s deep foray into Punjab’s political panorama.

The turban and the path

For the reason that center of 2025, the Haryana chief minister has been a near-weekly customer to Punjab—extra so since January this 12 months.

A senior BJP chief in Haryana who doesn’t need to be quoted informed ThePrint that the celebration management has informed Saini to spend at the least two days every week in Punjab within the run as much as the elections in that state.

He has been noticed at gurdwaras from Amritsar’s Golden Temple to Anandpur Sahib, Fatehgarh Sahib and Machhiwara.

He has been addressing public conferences in Punjab virtually each week. At every cease, the saffron turban is a continuing. He speaks in Punjabi, slips into Haryanvi-inflected Hindi when the second calls for, and addresses crowds on “good governance” and the “Haryana mannequin”.

BJP insiders describe it as a calculated outreach.

Saini, an OBC chief whose mom Kulwant Kaur is Sikh, is being positioned because the celebration’s bridge to Punjab’s non-Jat Sikh and OBCs, together with Saini communities.

Saini’s media coordinator, Ashok Chhabra, informed ThePrint that the chief minister comes from Mirzapur Majra village in Ambala district, including that the tradition within the border areas adjoining Punjab intently mirrors that of the neighbouring state.

He added that one would discover a number of households within the space who’ve a convention of 1 male baby adopting Sikhism.

Chhabra mentioned he himself used to don a turban when he was youthful.

The Saini belt—Dera Bassi, Rajpura, rural Patiala—is small however electorally related. Social gathering leaders say the Haryana CM’s fluency in Punjabi blunts the ‘outsider’ tag.

“Individuals from Punjab maintain inviting me. I am going as a celebration employee,” Saini has mentioned on a number of events.

In latest rallies, he has brazenly pitched for a BJP authorities in Chandigarh, promising to copy Haryana’s schemes and “heal” Punjab from what he calls years of “lies and misgovernance”.

Dr Jyoti Mishra, assistant professor of political science at Amity College, Mohali, and former researcher on the Centre for the Examine of Growing Societies (CSDS), mentioned mobilising Saini for the Punjab polls goes past reaching out to the Saini neighborhood, it is usually aimed toward consolidating the broader bloc of non-Jat Sikhs, together with OBCs and Dalits.

“Punjab has practically 31 per cent OBCs, together with Sainis, lots of them Sikh. The state has a 32 to 33 per cent Dalit inhabitants, one of many highest within the nation. By pitting greater than 60 per cent of this inhabitants in opposition to Jat Sikhs who’ve loved energy disproportionate to their inhabitants up to now, as of the 13 CMs who’ve served Punjab since Haryana was carved out of it in 1966, all barring two (Giani Zail Singh and Charanjit Singh Channi) have been Jat Sikhs, the BJP can intention to do what it efficiently did in Haryana—pit Jats in opposition to different,” Mishra added.

AAP’s counter: ‘Deputation CM’

For the AAP, Saini’s visits aren’t about neighbourly curiosity—it’s ‘Operation Lotus’ 2.0.

Pannu and Bharaj described Saini’s actions as a full-time task. “It appears the BJP has despatched him to Punjab on deputation,” Bharaj mentioned, including that she had been a devoted AAP employee since 2014, when she turned the celebration’s first lady polling agent in her village at age 19.

The Sangrur MLA, who turned Punjab’s youngest legislator in 2022 at 27, recounted how she was approached via an area middleman. “They mentioned the BJP wants candidates in each seat. They supplied me the Sangrur ticket and mentioned all my calls for can be met.” She rejected it flatly: “I used to be made MLA by AAP and the individuals of Sangrur. My politics is just not on the market.”

This isn’t the primary time AAP has spoken of horse-trading. In 2022, quickly after forming the federal government, it had complained to the DGP about related makes an attempt on at the least 10 MLAs, terming the makes an attempt as ‘Operation Lotus’.

Why Saini? The BJP’s Punjab gamble

Mishra mentioned the BJP has lengthy struggled to make electoral inroads in Punjab, with the 2022 Meeting elections yielding little success. Its alliance with the Akali Dal unraveled after the farm legal guidelines, and since then the celebration has been working to rebuild—inducting new leaders, holding outreach occasions, and now projecting Saini as a distinguished face of its marketing campaign.

She mentioned that Punjab and Haryana share water disputes, farmer sentiments, and a porous border. No shock then that the BJP has chosen the Haryana CM to woo voters in Punjab.

“A powerful efficiency in Punjab would additionally assist the BJP consolidate its OBC and non-Jat vote in Haryana’s border districts. Saini, who led the celebration to a shock third consecutive win in Haryana final 12 months, is seen as the person who can ship in Punjab too,” she added.

(Edited by Viny Mishra)

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