Ludhiana। — The Aam Aadmi Party has formally begun its campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly election, with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann releasing the party’s election pamphlet in Ludhiana and announcing an extensive door-to-door outreach programme that will begin across the state from September 20.
The campaign marks a shift from public rallies and political messaging towards direct household-level engagement. AAP says 2,68,553 booth committee members will participate in the exercise, covering Punjab’s 25,332 polling booths. Mann himself is scheduled to begin the campaign from Dhuri, his Assembly constituency. The party will also run a parallel membership drive.
The central message of the campaign was laid out by Mann while unveiling the pamphlet. He sought to frame the coming political contest around the record of his government rather than promises for the future.
“We are not going to people to tell them what we will do. We will tell them what we have already done,” Mann said, according to reports of his address.
He claimed that the government had fulfilled its election guarantees during its four-and-a-half years in office and said the party’s workers would now take its record directly to voters.
The campaign comes several months before the Punjab Assembly election and at a time when political parties are increasingly turning their attention towards grassroots mobilisation. The BJP has simultaneously launched a statewide anti-drug campaign, while Congress and other parties have been raising issues including law and order, unemployment, agriculture and governance.
Mann puts government record at centre of campaign
Addressing the launch event, Mann presented the AAP government’s record in sectors including road safety, electricity, agriculture, education, healthcare and employment as the basis of the party’s campaign.
One of the issues he highlighted was road safety. Mann said Punjab had previously recorded a high number of deaths in road accidents and argued that his government responded by establishing the Sadak Suraksha Force (SSF).
The SSF was launched by the Punjab government in February 2024 as a dedicated road-safety force intended to respond more quickly to accidents and improve enforcement on major roads. The government has subsequently cited the force as one of its major governance initiatives.
Mann also said the work of the Punjab force had received recognition from Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari. His remarks were presented as part of the government’s broader argument that the SSF has produced measurable improvements in road safety.
Door-to-door campaign designed as a government report card
The decision to send more than 2.68 lakh booth-level workers into households is significant because it gives the party an organisational mechanism to communicate its achievements directly at the local level.
According to AAP’s campaign plan, workers will discuss the government’s work during the past four-and-a-half years, explain welfare measures and interact with residents. The party says its booth committees will cover every household through the campaign.
The exercise will also be used to strengthen the party organisation through a membership drive. This means the campaign is simultaneously being positioned as a government-performance outreach and an organisational mobilisation programme ahead of the election.
Mann’s participation from Dhuri gives the campaign a personal political dimension. Rather than launching the exercise solely through the party organisation, the Chief Minister is himself scheduled to participate in household visits from his constituency on September 20.
AAP seeks to turn its governance record into election messaging
AAP’s argument is that the 2027 election should be fought on the basis of what has been implemented during its current term.
At the Ludhiana launch, Mann said the party did not intend to approach voters merely with another list of promises. Instead, he said, its workers would explain the measures already implemented by the government.
Party leaders have highlighted several areas, including free electricity, improvements in government schools and hospitals, employment initiatives, agriculture, canal irrigation, sports and measures aimed at traders and women.
AAP Punjab in-charge Manish Sisodia, who announced the door-to-door campaign on Friday, said the party believed its government had fulfilled its major 2022 election commitments. He also claimed that an average Punjab household had received an annual financial benefit of around ₹1.82 lakh from the government’s schemes. That figure is a party claim and represents AAP’s own assessment of the value of its welfare measures.
Punjab AAP president Aman Arora has also said that the party’s extensive booth-level network would be responsible for taking the government’s record to individual households.
Campaign begins as political contest intensifies
The timing of the campaign is significant. Punjab is scheduled to vote for its next Assembly in 2027, and the major political parties have already begun building their narratives around the issues expected to dominate the election.
The BJP has made the drug problem a central theme of its current statewide campaign, while AAP has responded by highlighting its governance record and challenging the opposition over its record in government.
Mann’s launch speech therefore placed the AAP campaign within a broader political argument over Punjab’s direction. He sought to contrast the government’s record of completed schemes with what he described as the promises and performance of earlier administrations.
The coming weeks will now take the campaign from the stage in Ludhiana to homes across Punjab. With more than 2.68 lakh booth-level workers expected to participate, AAP is attempting to turn its four-and-a-half-year governance record into a sustained grassroots conversation ahead of the 2027 Assembly election.
For the party, the stated objective is straightforward: rather than asking voters to imagine what an AAP government might do next, its campaign will ask households to assess what the Mann government says it has already delivered.