Chandigarh, Sept. 10 -- The BJP's decision to launch four statewide yatras against drugs from September 18 is not merely an awareness campaign but a calculated political move to make the drug menace the central issue for the Punjab assembly polls scheduled early next year. Behind the yatras is the BJP high command's assessment, backed by at least five internal surveys, that drugs remain the most emotive and important issue on the ground in Punjab despite the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government's high-decibel campaign against the menace. "We believe there is a pressing need for a widespread public movement against the drug menace, and the BJP will spearhead such a movement in the coming days in Punjab," BJP national chief Nitin Nabin said in Delhi, adding that "anarchy and "corruption" would be other key poll issues. The party's reasoning for making drugs the core issue is based on its assessment that the situation has gone from bad to worse on the ground. "Availability of chitta (heroin) is as common as it was 10 years back," a senior BJP strategist, who has been camping in Punjab for the past three months, said. Punjab BJP chief Kewal Singh Dhillon said Union ministers, senior leaders from the party high command and chief ministers of various BJP-ruled states are likely to attend the yatras in Punjab on a daily basis. The party had instructed its cadres to ensure large attendance in the small rallies being held under the yatras, which will cover all assembly segments, said Dhillon, adding: "After these yatras, which can also be called an awareness campaign, the BJP will come out with a blueprint to end the menace from Punjab." The drug issue first occupied centrestage in Punjab politics during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The ruling SAD-BJP combine lost seven of the state's 13 seats, including Amritsar, where senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley was defeated. The issue began to haunt the SAD after the busting of the multi-crore Jagdish Bhola drug racket. Ahead of the 2017 assembly polls, then Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh had taken an oath holding the "Gutka Sahib" to "break the backbone of drugs" within a month of forming the government. After becoming the CM, he claimed to have cracked hard on the menace. In the 2022 assembly polls, the AAP again made drugs a key poll promise, with national convener Arvind Kejriwal promising to end the menace within six months of coming to power. After forming the government, the Bhagwant Mann dispensation launched its most ambitious anti-drug drive, Yudh Nashian Virudh, claiming record seizures and the highest-ever number of FIRs under the NDPS Act. The BJP, however, believes that the government's campaign has not translated into a change on the ground. Punjab BJP chief Kewal Dhillon said the menace had only increased in the last five years and termed the campaigns of the ruling government "publicity stunts". "I met a woman in Jagraon who claimed that she lost her four sons because of chitta. I visited a posh locality in Faridkot where rich people have decided to sell their houses because they think the atmosphere was not conducive for their kids because of drugs," Dhillon said. He also referred to an incident in a Sangrur village where a labourer committed suicide after being allegedly tortured for asking questions over the prevalence of drugs in the village to finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema. "I challenge any leader of the AAP to swear by their kids and say that the drug problem has finished in Punjab," Dhillon said. According to the senior strategist, the BJP's surveys point to two clear political dividends. First, the drug issue connects directly with the public because it is now seen as the root cause of law and order problems and gangsterism in Punjab. Second, the BJP sees it as a counter to AAP's women vote-bank. The party feels women voters are currently tilted towards the AAP, especially after the announcement of the 'Mawan Dheeyan Satkar Yojana', under which the government gives Rs.1,000 per month to women from the general category and Rs.1,500 to Scheduled Caste women. Former BJP chief and Pathankot MLA Ashwani Sharma said women feel the impact of drug addiction most within families. "Whenever there is a drug problem in a house, women feel the heat the most. Be it a husband or a son getting addicted to drugs, it pains the women of the household. Through these Yatras, the BJP will not only try to connect with such women but also show them a roadmap of what will be our plan to end the menace if they support BJP," Sharma said. The ruling AAP has questioned the BJP's credentials on the issue, pointing out that the party was a partner in the SAD-BJP government when the drug problem first exploded politically in the state. AAP Punjab general secretary (organisation) and chief spokesperson of the Nasha Mukti Morcha Baltej Pannu hit out at the BJP over its proposed anti-drug yatras, saying the party should join Punjab's ongoing 'Yudh Nashian Virudh' instead of launching a separate political campaign. Pannu said the massive enforcement drive, under which 60,239 cases have been registered and 77,509 persons booked since March 2025, reflects the scale of Punjab's fight against drugs. "The BJP must also answer for the 'chitta' menace that flooded Punjab during the 2007-17 Akali-BJP rule and pushed generations of the state's youth into the drug trap, instead of now attempting to make the issue a political plank," Pannu said. He said Punjab had already been fighting a sustained, people-driven war against drugs for the past 1.6 years....