Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday launched a nationwide anti-drug campaign — Nasha Mukt Yuva for Viksit Bharat Sankalp Abhiyan — stressing that a drug-free and healthy youth population is essential in achieving the goal of a developed India. He said the campaign is a collective effort involving not just young people but also their families, society and the country as a whole.The timing of the campaign is particularly relevant for Punjab ahead of 2027 Assembly Elections, where the drug menace has remained a recurring electoral issue for more than a decade, with successive political parties promising to eradicate it — and successive governments struggling to demonstrate that they have succeeded.The issue had figured in the 2012 Punjab Assembly election, when the SAD-BJP government faced growing concerns over drug abuse and its political opponents began building their campaigns around the issue. By the 2014 Lok Sabha election, drugs had become one of the most powerful political narratives in the state.The SAD-BJP government launched a campaign against drugs and stepped up action against those accused of involvement in the trade. Yet the political narrative did not change. The Aam Aadmi Party, then a relatively new entrant to Punjab politics, went on to win four of the state’s 13 Lok Sabha seats in 2014, building much of its campaign around issues of drug menace, corruption, and governance.The issue became more prominent in the run-up to the 2017 Assembly election when Captain Amarinder Singh, then Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president, made the promise to eradicate drugs a central part of his campaign and famously said that his government would wipe out the menace within four weeks of coming to power. The Congress won the election and Amarinder became CM, but the promise soon became a political liability. The menace persisted, and the opposition kept using his promise to attack his government.By the 2022 Assembly election, the issue had come full circle.The AAP promised to go after the “big fish” in the drug trade and eradicate the menace. After coming to power, the Bhagwant Mann government launched its Yudh Nasheyan Virudh campaign, registering thousands of cases, arresting alleged drug traffickers and taking action against properties linked to the drug trade. The government has also sought to involve villages and communities in the fight against addiction.Story continues below this adYet, despite the scale of the enforcement campaign, drugs remain a visible problem in Punjab.This is where the political significance of Modi’s campaign begins to emerge.The AAP government can point to the 1000s of cases registered, 1000s of arrests made and properties attached or demolished as evidence of action. But opposition parties have continued to argue that the drug menace has not been controlled and, in some areas, has worsened. The persistence of drug-related cases and addiction has meant that the issue has once again remained available prominently for political mobilisation.Modi himself, during his July 17 visit to Punjab, used the issue of drugs while attacking the AAP government, underlining that the menace remains part of the Centre’s political narrative in the state.Story continues below this adNow, barely six months before the 2027 Assembly election, the PM has launched a nationwide campaign focused on drugs.And Punjab is unlikely to remain a footnote in that campaign.Rajya Sabha MP Vikramjit Singh Sahney, who recently joined the BJP, has already announced that he will take the anti-drug campaign to Punjab and seek to mobilise five lakh young people to take a pledge against drugs.For the BJP, the opportunity is difficult to overlook. The drug issue has already been tested by virtually every major political formation in the state. The SAD-BJP alliance has faced questions over its handling of the issue. The Congress came to power in 2017 with an emphatic promise to eradicate drugs, only to face criticism that the promise remained unfulfilled. The AAP made an equally strong commitment in 2022 and is now facing criticism despite an extensive crackdown.Story continues below this adThe BJP, however, has not yet been tested as the principal governing party in Punjab on the issue.That could change if the party decides to contest the 2027 Assembly election largely on its own and manages to win a meaningful number of seats — or even becomes part of a future government.This gives the BJP a political argument that its leaders are likely to increasingly make as the election approaches. Now, the BJP can ask voters to give it an opportunity to demonstrate what it can do.The anti-drug campaign could therefore become an important part of that pitch.Story continues below this ad“It allows the BJP to enter a political space where almost every other party has already been held accountable. The party can present the Modi-led campaign as a fresh, nationwide approach that combines enforcement with youth participation, prevention, rehabilitation and skill development,” said a Senior SAD leader on the condition of anonymity, adding that Sahney’s role is important in this emerging narrative.His proposed mobilisation of five lakh youth could provide the party with a network that extends beyond its traditional organisational base and reaches young people, families and communities affected by addiction, said he.But the BJP will also have to confront the same reality that has challenged every government before it.“Punjab’s drug problem has proved far more complex than election slogans. Arrests and seizures can disrupt supply networks, and action against properties linked to the drug trade can create a deterrent. But the long-term problem also involves addiction, rehabilitation, relapse, unemployment and the social conditions that push young people towards substance abuse,” told Dr.Story continues below this adHarshinder Kaur, President of the Dr Harsh Charitable Trust and Professor & Pediatrics at Government Medical College Patiala, recently as she has been raising serious concerns over the growing drug crisis in Punjab.“The AAP will have to defend its record after making the eradication of drugs a major promise in 2022. The Congress can point to the failure of successive governments, but will also have to answer questions about its own record in office. The Akali Dal, too, cannot escape the political history of the issue during its years in government,” said a Canada based NRI KS Khurana, adding that the BJP, meanwhile, can seek to position itself as the party that has not yet had the opportunity to govern Punjab alone and therefore has not yet been “tested” by voters on the drug issue.In the previous elections, NRI have remained a great support for AAP.This is perhaps where Modi’s campaign could acquire its greatest political significance.Story continues below this adThe drug menace has never really disappeared from Punjab’s electoral landscape. It has changed hands as a political weapon, moving from one party’s campaign to another’s depending on who is in power, said a Hoshiarpur based Social worker Jai Gopal Dhiman.The campaign may have been launched as a nationwide social movement under Viksit Bharat. But in Punjab, where the political promise of a “drug-free state” has been made repeatedly and the ground reality continues to challenge those promises, its electoral implications are likely to be difficult to ignore, said a senior Aam Aadmi Party leader requesting not to be named.“The question for the BJP will be whether it can convert that campaign into a credible political alternative.And the question for Punjab’s voters may be simpler: after testing almost every major political formation on the promise of a drug-free Punjab, are they ready to give the BJP a chance to make that case on its own?,” said another NRI Gurbaksh Singh.