Pepsi to politics: Why BJP picked Kewal Dhillon to lead Punjab unit

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday appointed Kewal Singh Dhillon, the industrialist-politician often credited with bringing Pepsi to Punjab during the militancy years, as the new president of its Punjab unit, replacing Sunil Jakhar as the party attempts to deepen its Sikh outreach ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections.

Dhillon’s appointment is also being seen as a calculated political signal to the ruling Aam Aadmi Party. A prominent face from Sangrur district — the home turf of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann — Dhillon has been chosen at a time when the BJP is trying to make inroads into rural Malwa, the region that politically dominates Punjab.

After the collapse of its alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal, the BJP has struggled to shake off the perception of being confined largely to urban Hindu voters in Punjab. By appointing a Jat Sikh leader with roots in Malwa and a long political career in Congress, the party is attempting to project a broader social face in the state.

Dhillon is widely known as the man associated with bringing Pepsi to Punjab at a time when few investors were willing to enter the state because of militancy. Through the Dhillon Group, he built a major beverages and bottling business that later expanded into hospitality, real estate and other sectors.

Years later, even political rivals acknowledged that role. When Congress expelled him in 2022, party MP Manish Tewari publicly remarked that Dhillon had brought PepsiCo to Punjab “when nobody was willing to invest in Punjab during terrorism”.

Born in Tallewal village in Barnala district, Dhillon entered politics through the Congress and gradually emerged as one of the party’s prominent Jat Sikh leaders in Malwa.

He won the Barnala Assembly seat in 2007 and retained it in 2012. For years, he remained close to former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and was regarded as one of his trusted leaders in the region. In 2019, Congress fielded him from Sangrur Lok Sabha seat against Bhagwant Mann. Though he lost, he remained politically active in the region.

His political journey took a turn in 2022 when he quit the Congress and joined the BJP amid internal differences within the party. At a time when the BJP was facing hostility in sections of Punjab after the farm laws agitation, Dhillon’s entry was considered significant because he brought both a Sikh face and a rural Malwa network.

Soon after joining the BJP, he unsuccesfully contested the Sangrur Lok Sabha bypoll on the party ticket, directly taking on AAP in Mann’s home district.

Known for his soft-spoken and accessible style, Dhillon represents an older generation of Punjab politicians who relied more on constituency relationships and personal outreach than aggressive television politics.

His immediate challenge, however, will be formidable. The BJP continues to search for an independent political identity in Punjab after decades of relying on the Akali Dal alliance. At the same time, it is trying to expand in rural Sikh areas while retaining its traditional urban support base.

With Dhillon at the helm, the party appears to be signalling that its Punjab strategy will now revolve around rural outreach, Sikh representation and a sharper challenge to AAP in Malwa.