The BJP is set to get a new Punjab president, with the party inclined to have a Sikh face as it gears up for the 2027 Assembly election.
The three-year tenure of incumbent chief Sunil Jakhar ends in July.
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Sources say the party may announce the new president by this month-end or early in June. Jakhar, sources say, will continue to play a key role in leading the campaign for the election.
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Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Saini, who has been visiting Punjab and participating in party functions and rallies, is pushing for a Sikh face, sources say.
Among the prominent Sikh names doing the rounds are Ravneet Bittu, the Union minister and grandson of Beant Singh, and Manpreet Badal, the former finance minister.
Kewal Dhillon’s candidature is being actively pushed by Capt Amarinder Singh.
But a surprise name has set tongues wagging in party circles. Manjit Rai, a Rai Sikh leader from Ferozepur, is emerging as the dark horse, say party sources. Rai is a senior BJP leader who has served the party at organisational levels. Rai is seen in the party as someone with deep grassroots connect in the Malwa region.
Also doing the rounds is the name of Jagmohan Raju, a bureaucrat-turned BJP leader from Amritsar. Raju is believed to be close to the party’s top leadership. Raju resigned from service in 2022 and entered politics before being appointed the general secretary of the BJP in Punjab.
Rajya Sabha MP Satnam Sandhu and ex-MLA Rana Gurmeet Sodhi are other Sikh faces in the party besides ex-MLA Fateh Jung Bajwa.
Hindu leaders are also not entirely out of the picture. Senior leader Tarun Chugh, who has long been associated with the party’s Punjab affairs, is also said to be in the reckoning.
The preference for a Sikh president reflects the ground reality the party cannot ignore. “The BJP is traditionally a Hindu-based party. But in Punjab, a Sikh face matters,” says a party source. The political arithmetic is straightforward — Sikhs form the dominant community in the state, and Punjab has always had a Sikh as chief minister. Sources say that with the 2027 Assembly election looming, the BJP is keen to shed its image of an outsider in a state where it has struggled to find its footing