With nearly seven months still to go for the 650th birth anniversary (Parkash Purab) of Guru Ravidas in February 2027, Punjab’s political landscape is witnessing an intense outreach towards the influential Dalit community, with the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerging as the two principal players.While the AAP government has rolled out an official year-long calendar of religious, cultural and social programs, the BJP has launched a parallel nationwide campaign centred around Guru Ravidas’s teachings and associated religious institutions. With the Punjab Assembly elections due in early 2027, both parties appear keen to strengthen their connect with a community that constitutes around 32 per cent of the state’s population.The Punjab government formally launched the year-long celebrations in February this year, announcing that programs would continue till February 2027. Religious congregations, seminars, cultural events, educational competitions and social service initiatives were included in the official calendar.Coincidentally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited Dera Sachkhand Ballan near Jalandhar on February 1 this year on the occasion of Guru Ravidas Parkash Utsav, where he addressed a large gathering at the dera. It was his first of two visits to Punjab’s Doaba region within six months.Among the initiatives announced by the state government are district-level kirtan darbars, shobha yatras, seminars, lectures and workshops in universities and colleges focusing on Guru Ravidas’s life, teachings and philosophy. Essay writing, painting, speech and quiz competitions are also being organised in educational institutions.One of the government’s most visible outreach programs began on July 7, when more than 100 mobile LED vans were flagged off across Punjab to screen a 30-minute documentary on Guru Ravidas’s life and message in villages and towns. Officials say the documentary campaign aims to cover more than 13,000 villages over the course of the year-long celebrations.Interestingly, the documentary campaign began around the same time as special screenings of the Diljit Dosanjh-starrer Satluj, based on the life of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, were being organised in villages and towns across Punjab.Story continues below this adThe state government has also announced drone shows depicting Guru Ravidas’s life, marathons, cycle rallies, blood donation camps and other social service activities. A plantation drive involving 6.5 lakh saplings is planned to develop a ‘Guru Ravidas Bagichi’, while a commemorative pendant will be released at a state-level function at Sri Khuralgarh Sahib in Hoshiarpur district. The government is also establishing the Sri Guru Ravidas Bani Research Centre at Faridpur near Dera Sachkhand Ballan.The BJP, meanwhile, has intensified its own religious outreach.Prime Minister Modi returned to Doaba on July 17 to inaugurate the redeveloped Jalandhar railway station and flag off the Sri Guru Ravidas Yatra Special Train, which connects Jalandhar city with Varanasi for devotees visiting Guru Ravidas’s birthplace at Seer Govardhanpur.Renaming airportEarlier, the Centre had also renamed the Adampur airport as Sri Guru Ravidas Ji International Airport.Punjab BJP Scheduled Caste Morcha president S R Ladhar, along with party workers, left for Seer Govardhanpur on Tuesday to bring back sacred soil from Guru Ravidas’s birthplace.Story continues below this ad“We will reach Punjab by the end of this month, and from August 1 we will begin the Kalash Yatra. The sacred soil will be distributed in 650 or more kalash, which will be taken by our district and mandal units and placed at Guru Ravidas temples and gurdwaras across Punjab… In November, we will organise an inter-faith Sant Samaj Sampark Abhiyan to reach out to religious preachers across the state irrespective of their faith, as Guru Ravidas’s teachings promote equality,” Ladhar said.He maintained that the BJP’s programs were purely religious.“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already named Adampur airport as Sri Guru Ravidas Ji International Airport. We are observing the 650th birth anniversary of Guru Ravidas in a big way not only in Punjab but across the country. These programs are purely religious and have nothing to do with politics,” he said.Political observers, however, see the outreach through the prism of Punjab’s electoral arithmetic.Story continues below this adAccording to the 2011 Census, Scheduled Castes constitute nearly 32 per cent of Punjab’s population, the highest among Indian states. Their concentration is particularly significant in the Doaba region, where Dera Sachkhand Ballan remains the most influential Ravidassia institution, with an estimated following of over 20 lakh globally and around 15 lakh in Punjab. The four Doaba districts – Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar – have a Scheduled Caste population of around 37 per cent, making the region politically crucial in several Assembly constituencies and two Lok Sabha seats.While neither the Congress nor the Shiromani Akali Dal has announced a structured calendar of events to mark the 650th birth anniversary, leaders of both parties continue to participate in religious programs organised by the Ravidassia community and regularly pay obeisance at Dera Sachkhand Ballan.The recent police action against protesting sanitation workers in Barnala – many of whom belong to the Scheduled Caste community – also became a political flashpoint, with the BJP, Congress and the Akali Dal attacking the AAP government and the Congress even raising the issue outside Parliament.Also Read | Punjab AAP hits reset in seats before 2027 elections, sparks ticket struggleA senior BJP leader said the party intends to conclude its major year-long program before the election process begins.Story continues below this ad“If Assembly elections are held in February next year, the Model Code of Conduct could come into force in early January. Therefore, we plan to organise one major program before December 31, 2026. Devotees will, of course, continue to pay tributes to Guru Ravidas on February 20, 2027, on the occasion of Parkash Purab at the historical places associated with Guru,” the leader said.Whether described as religious outreach or cultural commemoration, the year-long programs have unmistakably acquired political significance. With the 2027 Assembly elections approaching, Punjab’s largest voter bloc has once again become the focus of competing narratives, making the 650th birth anniversary of Guru Ravidas as much a political milestone as a religious one.