CHANDIGARH: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address three election meetings in Punjab on May 23 and 24, a senior party leader said on Sunday.

The PM will address a rally in Patiala in support of party candidate Preneet Kaur on May 23.

A day later, he will address rallies at Gurdaspur and Jalandhar for candidates Dinesh Babbu and Sushil Rinku, respectively.

The stakes are high for the BJP this time as it is in the parliamentary fray alone for the first time. The Akali Dal snapped nearly three-decade-long ties and pulled out of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in September 2020 over the contentious, now-repealed farm laws. On earlier occasions, the BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) had been contesting as part of the seat-sharing pact since 1996.

During the 2019 elections, the Congress won eight out of 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab. The BJP and SAD won two seats each, while the AAP could only manage to secure one seat.

Punjab will go to the polls in a single phase for 13 parliamentary seats on June 1.