- Punjab's drug crisis is a key issue in next year's assembly election campaigns
- SAD launched a women-led Maawan-Dheeyan Insaaf campaign focused on rural Malwa
- Campaign targets families affected by drugs with local gatherings and memorandum submissions
Punjab's drug crisis is rapidly turning into a major political mobilisation issue ahead of the next year's assembly election. After the BJP took out a statewide anti-drug yatra and the AAP launched a door-to-door report-card campaign, the Shiromani Akali Dal has entered the contest with its own grassroots strategy - a women-led "Maawan-Dheeyan Insaaf" campaign under the leadership of Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal.
The SAD campaign is significant not only because of its focus on drugs, but also because of the way it is being organised.
Instead of one large statewide roadshow, Harsimrat is moving through rural constituencies, holding women's gatherings and then leading marches to submit memorandums to executive magistrates.
The campaign is combining political mobilisation with local grievances.
The outreach began on September 21 with gatherings at Rampura Phul and Nathana. On September 22, Harsimrat took the campaign to Mansa and Sardulgarh. On September 23, the mobilisation moved to Lambi and Gidderbaha.
This gives the SAD campaign a clear Malwa-centric footprint. These are not merely party meetings. Women from families affected by drugs are being brought into the campaign, while memorandums are being submitted to the administration demanding action and rehabilitation.
The political messaging is equally important.
Harsimrat Kaur has made mothers and daughters the face of the campaign, arguing that families are bearing the consequences of drug addiction. She has accused the AAP government of failing to control drug trafficking and has raised the cases of Mohanjit Singh and Gulzar Singh while demanding justice and independent investigations. These allegations are part of the SAD's political campaign and should be distinguished from established findings.
The campaign also allows the SAD to widen the issue beyond drugs. Harsimrat has linked the drug crisis with women's welfare, ration, unemployment, inflation and social-security benefits. She has also revived the SAD's earlier welfare schemes, including Aata-Daal, Shagun and old-age pensions, as part of the party's pitch to rural voters.
Most importantly, Harsimrat has connected the mobilisation with the 2027 elections, asking women to support the SAD and promising tougher laws against drug traffickers and expanded welfare measures.
The timing puts the SAD campaign alongside two other competing outreach models.
The BJP's Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra is the most expansive geographically. Four simultaneous yatras started on September 18 and will cover all 117 assembly constituencies and around 4,000 km before culminating in Jalandhar on September 30. The BJP is using drugs, law and order and corruption as central themes.
AAP, meanwhile, has opted for organisational penetration at the household level.
The party has launched a door-to-door exercise involving booth-level workers across Punjab. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has also taken the government's report card directly to voters, beginning from his Dhuri constituency.
The SAD's approach is different. Its campaign is smaller in geographical scale but more targeted politically: rural women, families affected by addiction and constituencies across the Malwa belt.
For the Akali Dal, therefore, the "Maawan-Dheeyan Insaaf" campaign serves multiple purposes: putting the AAP government under pressure on drugs, creating a women-focused political constituency, taking the party organisation deeper into rural areas and strengthening its presence in the Malwa belt.
The larger picture is now a three-way contest of outreach strategies: The BJP is taking the anti-drug message across Punjab through a yatra; AAP is taking its governance report card from booth to household; and SAD is attempting to build a rural women-led movement through Harsimrat Badal's Insaaf Marches.
With Rampura Phul, Nathana, Mansa, Sardulgarh, Lambi and Gidderbaha already on the campaign route, the key political question for SAD is whether this issue-based mobilisation can be converted into sustained village-level organisation as the 2027 election campaign gathers pace.
