The BJP's national leadership, on Friday, directed accountability questions at the AAP-run Punjab government over a series of deaths involving individuals who had reportedly taken a stand against drug networks in their localities. A formal request for an accounting was directed by the Ministry of Home Affairs toward Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's administration, a move that coincided with party president Nitin Nabin stating publicly that AAP's record in office had not met expectations.

Citing three episodes — the fatal attack on Batala resident Bikramjit Singh, 40, who had confronted drug dealers; the daytime shooting of anti-drug campaigner Parvinder Singh Jhota in Mansa on 13 October; and the death by suicide of a 50-year-old man in Dirba the previous month, reportedly after he faced pressure following a public exchange with Finance Minister Harpal Cheema over heroin trafficking and his son's addiction — Shah stated that the incidents prompt scrutiny of law and order in Punjab, particularly around the drug trade, gang activity, and organised crime. Shah added, through a post on X, that the home ministry would seek responses from the Punjab government on both incidents and that accountability for public safety within Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's administration remained an open question.

Those remarks linked to Shah followed a statement from Jhota's father, who pointed to the AAP and one of the party's local elected representatives as bearing responsibility for his son's death. Efforts to address substance misuse across the area had formed a central part of Jhota's public work.

Shah outlined what he described as the party's top priorities for Punjab — dismantling illicit drug networks and curbing gang activity — should the BJP form the next government there. The address put forward calls for breaking apart drug trafficking networks alongside an independent review of allegations that certain criminal actors operated under a shield of political patronage.

Nabin raised the question of what Punjab had come to represent when those who openly stood against the drug trade found themselves facing threats to their safety. Authorities in Punjab have faced calls to address drug-related networks operating in the region while improving protections for residents.

Days after the BJP concluded its 13-day 'Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra' — a constituency-by-constituency tour spanning all 117 assembly seats and roughly 4,000 kilometres, with Shah addressing a final gathering in Jalandhar on 30 September — the MHA announced its own action. At a campaign appearance, Shah put the eradication of illicit narcotics networks at the centre of the BJP's electoral pitch, setting a deadline of 31 December 2029 for that goal, contingent on the party winning power.