India, Sept. 28 -- A passport-size photo of a dead son. A mother who has lost three children. Another who says she has lost six. A former soldier who fought wars on the border but could not save his own son from narcotics.

These are the faces the BJP is putting at the centre of its largest statewide political push in Punjab ahead of the 2027 assembly elections.

The party's four-pronged Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra is ostensibly a campaign against substance abuse, but the political messaging is unambiguous: The BJP is seeking to make the drug crisis a referendum on the performance of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government while positioning itself as the sole force capable of tackling the problem.

Covering nearly 4,000-km across all 117 assembl...