What began as a war of words between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the BJP over the May 5 low-intensity blasts in Jalandhar and Amritsar has now spilled onto streets, marked with clashes between their party workers, alleged attacks on BJP offices and an increasingly bitter face-off in the run-up to the 2027 Punjab Assembly polls.On Monday, alleged attacks on BJP offices in Tarn Taran, Batala and Zirakpur, along with black ink being thrown at its leaders in Ludhiana, pushed the confrontation into a new phase.AdvertisementThe most serious incident was reported from Tarn Taran, where around 15-20 persons allegedly stormed a BJP office at a bypass around 3 pm, raised slogans of “BJP murdabad”, and damaged furniture and window panes. Police registered FIRs in all these incidents. But the BJP wasted no time in framing them as part of a larger political pattern. Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar alleged that the attacks were carried out as part of a “well-planned conspiracy”. He compared the situation to “political violence” in West Bengal under the previous Trinamool Congress (TMC) rule.“The ruling AAP is behind the simultaneous attacks and it was trying to create a situation in Punjab similar to that in West Bengal under Mamata Banerjee before the announcement of the Assembly poll results there,” Jakhar alleged.For the BJP, the latest incidents are not isolated disturbances but part of what it sees as a growing atmosphere of political hostility in Punjab ever since Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann sought to link the BJP to the May 5 blasts outside the Border Security Force (BSF) headquarters in Jalandhar and the Army headquarters in Amritsar.Advertisement“This is BJP’s preparation for the Punjab elections… After Bengal, they had been saying that the next turn is in Punjab… So wherever they go, such incidents are bound to happen,” Mann had said on May 6 during the launch of the “Shukrana Yatra”, even as the Punjab Police was probing an ISI angle into them.That statement altered the political discourse in Punjab almost overnight. BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh issued a legal notice to Mann, while BJP leaders demanded a sedition case against the CM. Since then, confrontation between workers of the two parties has steadily escalated.On Sunday, protests called by AAP workers against the Enforcement Directorate (ED)’s arrest of Punjab minister Sanjeev Arora, in an alleged money laundering case, led to clashes at several places. In Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district, Banga MLA Sukhwinder Sukhi allegedly manhandled a BJP district president inside a BJP office. In Ludhiana, a BJP worker was injured during clashes between AAP and BJP workers, while in Bathinda, police had to form a human chain between slogan-shouting workers of both parties outside the BJP office.The political temperature rose further after BJP Scheduled Caste Morcha president and former IAS officer S R Ladhar alleged he was assaulted on May 14 while campaigning for his son Gautam Girish in the Mohali civic polls.With Punjab heading into elections for eight municipal corporations and 105 municipal councils on May 26, both the AAP and the BJP are already shaping their narratives for the 2027 Assembly elections.The AAP considers the BJP a “politically useful adversary” in Punjab, especially after the 2020-21 agitation against the now-repealed Central farm laws left deep resentment among people against the latter in rural areas. For the BJP, however, the current confrontation offers a chance to consolidate its cadre and project itself as a “victim of political intimidation”.In the 2022 Assembly elections, which the BJP fought after its break-up with old ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) over the farm laws, the saffron party managed to win only two seats while securing 6.6% vote share. Though electorally weak, the vote share was still higher than its tally in 2017, when the BJP, contesting in an alliance with the SAD, had secured 5.4% vote share and won three of the 23 seats it had contested.In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections too, BJP candidates faced intense protests in several villages as farmers’ groups under the banners of Kisan Mazdoor Morcha and Samyukt Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) camped at the Shambhu and Khanauri borders to demand a legally guaranteed minimum support price (MSP). In several constituencies, BJP leaders were allegedly stopped from entering villages during campaigning. The BJP eventually failed to win even a single parliamentary seat in Punjab, though its vote share rose sharply to 18.5%, almost doubling its performance in 2019, when it had won two seats contesting in an alliance with the SAD.On May 12, while addressing a public gathering in Ludhiana district’s Samrala, CM Mann sharpened his attack further, saying: “Beware of the BJP.” Mann alleged that the BJP “thrives on creating communal tensions before elections to polarise voters” and warned that the party would again impose the “black farm laws” if voted to power in Punjab. He also accused the BJP of pursuing an “anti-Punjab mindset” on issues ranging from Chandigarh and the Sutlej Yamuna Link canal to rural development funds and border area allocations.you may like“Ahead of the 2027 polls, a similar scenario is being created yet again… But this time, the direct confrontation is between BJP and AAP workers rather than the public at large,” said a senior BJP leader.On its part, the principal Opposition Congress has sought to position itself as a spectator to this escalating conflict. The All India Congress Committee (AICC)’s Punjab in-charge Bhupesh Baghel remarked that both the AAP and the BJP were “two sides of the same coin”, while Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring accused the two parties of “playing games to befool people of Punjab”.But with street mobilisation, political messaging and allegations of intimidation intensifying, Punjab’s political discourse has unmistakably shifted into early election mode ahead of the 2027 battle.