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Jobs, drugs and migration remain key concerns as parties court young Punjabis

New Delhi: In Punjab, the road to the 2027 Assembly election is beginning to run through an unlikely political arena, the sports ground.

With a large young electorate and a generation increasingly shaped by Instagram, YouTube and short-form video, both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are trying to establish a direct connection with Gen Z. Sports has emerged as one of their preferred routes.

The timing is significant. Punjab will vote in 2027, and parties are already competing to shape the political conversation among younger voters. The BJP has stepped up its youth engagement through the Centre’s Khelo India programmes and a nationwide effort to connect with Gen Z. AAP, which governs Punjab, is pushing sports as part of its campaign around fitness, employment, drug prevention and a new image of the state.

The contest is not simply about getting young people to attend events. It is about changing how parties are perceived by a generation that is less likely to respond to traditional political rallies and more likely to encounter politics through digital content, sporting personalities and local community events.

On August 27, the Centre organised Khelo India Samvaad across Punjab, Chandigarh and Haryana, with students from two colleges in every district of Punjab participating in a synchronised programme linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interaction with young people. The stated objective was to connect youth with sports, fitness and youth-led nation-building.

The BJP’s interest in sports fits naturally into its larger national effort to expand its engagement with younger voters. But in Punjab, the strategy has an additional political dimension, the party is trying to expand its organisational footprint in a state where it has historically been weaker than the Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal and, more recently, AAP.

For AAP, the approach is different. It can point to government expenditure and infrastructure as evidence of performance. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has announced the fourth edition of Khedan Wattan Punjab Diyan, with the government targeting more than 10 lakh participants. The state says the previous edition attracted 4.35 lakh players and that thousands of athletes received medals and financial rewards.

Mann has made the political message explicit. “Sports will be made the biggest weapon to channelise the energy of youth and fight against drugs,” he said while announcing the new edition.

That sentence captures why sports has become so politically valuable in Punjab. The state has long had a strong sporting identity, producing athletes in hockey, athletics, wrestling, kabaddi and cricket. At the same time, drug abuse, unemployment and migration have become central concerns in political debates about the future of Punjab’s young population.

For AAP, linking sports with the fight against drugs allows the government to offer a positive alternative narrative: rather than portraying young Punjabis primarily as victims of addiction or unemployment, it presents them as athletes, entrepreneurs and potential achievers.

The party’s youth wing recently organised the Punjab Youth Run 2026 in Mohali and Jalandhar, with similar events planned elsewhere.

An AAP insider described the response as evidence that young people want “a healthy, vibrant and drug-free Punjab”. The party has also brought sportspersons into its political organisation. Former India cricketer Manpreet Singh Gony and international gold medallist Kunar recently joined AAP.

Mann himself made the political calculation clear when welcoming the two athletes, saying their presence would strengthen the party’s campaign to create “Rangla Punjab” and help inspire young people towards sports.

But the BJP is attempting to occupy the same emotional territory. Its national sports programmes allow the party to combine patriotism, sporting achievement and youth aspiration. The message is particularly suited to Gen Z because sport provides an entry point that is less overtly political than a conventional party meeting.

A political analyst who has studied the changing nature of youth politics, Yogesh Singh, argued that the emerging Gen Z mood reflects broader frustration among young Indians. His assessment is important for Punjab because it suggests that young voters should not be viewed simply as another demographic group to be mobilised.

“The paper leak is a trigger point,” Singh said in the context of the recent youth mobilisation nationally. “It reflects frustration and anger among the youth.”

That frustration is relevant to Punjab as well. Young voters are not concerned only with sporting facilities. They are asking whether they can find jobs, whether competitive examinations are fair, whether education will lead to employment and whether they need to leave the state to build a future.

“This is where the sports strategy could encounter its biggest limitation. A marathon can generate enthusiasm. A new playground can create a visible government achievement. A popular sports person can attract thousands of followers. But none of these automatically translates into votes,” Singh explained.

The political impact will depend on whether the outreach gives young people a reason to believe that a particular party understands their everyday problems.

For AAP, the danger is that sports outreach could be judged against four years of governing experience. The party cannot campaign only as an outsider promising change; it has to demonstrate that its policies have produced tangible opportunities.

For the BJP, the challenge is different. Its national visibility among young people does not necessarily translate into a strong local organisation or emotional connection with Punjab’s electorate. The party therefore needs to turn high-profile youth engagement into sustained grassroots relationships.

The competition could become even more important because Gen Z is less politically predictable than older generations. Young voters may engage enthusiastically with a party’s social-media campaign while remaining undecided at the ballot box.

They are also more accustomed to comparing political claims instantly. A promise about employment, sports facilities or government recruitment can be checked, challenged and mocked online within hours.

Punjab’s young voters are likely to judge the parties not only by who organises the biggest marathon or the most impressive sporting event, but by whether the playground leads somewhere, to a scholarship, a job, professional training, a competitive sporting career or simply a reason not to leave Punjab.

The BJP and AAP have therefore entered the same political field, but they are playing slightly different games. AAP is trying to turn its record in government into a story about a healthier, more active Punjab. The BJP is trying to use sports and national programmes to build familiarity with a younger generation and strengthen its claim to represent their aspirations.