India, Feb. 1 -- Barely four hours after the Union Budget 2026 presentation in Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's plane landed at the Adampur airport in Punjab's Jalandhar, for two key events that already look to the future. The next year, to be precise. There was a hint of this focus on 2027 in Nirmala Sitharaman's speech too - in the very first sentence.

First, why the PM headed to Ballan village in Punjab.

Punjab is going to polls early 2027, and the BJP is seeking to court Dalit voters, specifically Ravidassias, with PM Modi paying a visit to Dera Sachkhand at Ballan village near Jalandhar.

And he also renamed the airport where he landed, after Guru Ravidass, the 15th-century mystic-philosopher-poet who is the patron saint ...