Chandigarh : With 12 days to go for polling for the 13 Lok Sabha constituencies in Punjab, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the campaign blitz of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with three election rallies in the state.

Modi will kick off his Punjab campaign on May 23 from Patiala where four-time MP and former Union minister Preneet Kaur, the wife of former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh is the party candidate.

He will follow it up with two rallies in Gurdaspur and Jalandhar on May 24, according to the Prime Minister’s campaign schedule released by BJP state general secretary Rakesh Rathour here on Sunday.

Former chief parliamentary secretary and three-time legislator Dinesh Singh Babbu and former MP Sushil Kumar Rinku, who switched over from the AAP more than two months ago, are the party nominees from Gurdaspur and Jalandhar seats.

“This will be the first leg of the Prime Minister’s election campaign in Punjab. He is likely to undertake another tour in the closing stages of his 2024 campaign to address at least two more rallies — one probably in Ludhiana and the other in south Malwa, Ferozepur or Bathinda. The details are being worked out,” a senior party leader said.

Polling will take place in Punjab in the seventh and last phase of Lok Sabha polls on June 1.

Union home minister Amit Shah, Union defence minister Rajnath Sinh, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and national president Jagat Prakash Nadda are also slated to the state to address poll rallies in the state.

The party, contesting all 13 seats in Punjab for the first time since 1996 after ally SAD snapped ties, is primarily focusing on 6-7 constituencies where it fancies its chances or expects to do well in terms of vote share.

BJP leaders are counting on Modi and other central leaders to give a vigorous push to their campaign. The ‘Modi magic’ had not worked in Punjab in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections as the party, which contested in alliance with SAD on both occasions, failed to replicate the success it achieved in other northern states where it swept the polls. BJP state unit chief Sunil Jakhar, in an interaction with HT staff last week, said the 2024 election is a stepping stone to 2027 and it’s going to be a direct fight between the BJP and the AAP. “This time, people believe the BJP is here to stay,” he added.