CHANDIGARH: In a strategic move to strengthen the Dalit vote bank of 32 per cent in Punjab that will go to the Assembly polls early next year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting Dera Sachkhand Ballan on the occasion of Ravidass Jayanti, a prominent Ravidassia community sect that has much influence in the state’s Doaba region comprising Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr and Kapurthala districts.
He will be spending nearly 45 minutes on Sunday, February 1 in the dera located on the outskirts of Jalandhar with Sant Niranjan Das, the revered saint of the Ravidassia community and head of Dera Ballan, who was conferred the Padma Shri on Republic Day.
As per the tour programme of the Prime Minister, he will be reaching the Adampur airport at around 3.30 pm, from where he will be heading to the sect in a helicopter.
PM Modi last visited the air base of Adampur on May 13, 2025, where he had interacted with brave air warriors and soldiers, days after India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire.
Adampur was among the air force stations that Pakistan attempted to attack on the intervening night of May 9 and 10 after India’s 'Operation Sindoor.'
As per the official programme, during the visit the Prime Minister will rename Adampur’s civil airport after Guru Ravidass Maharaj in honour of sentiments of the community whose concentration is the highest in the state’s Doaba region -- the area between the Beas and the Satluj rivers.
The Doaba region holds 23 of 117 Assembly seats and the Dera Sachkhand Ballan has direct influence on at least 19 seats.
Also, the PM will virtually inaugurate the new terminal of the Halwara airport in Ludhiana.
On the auspicious occasion of the 649th birth anniversary of Sant Guru Ravidass, the renaming of Adampur airport honours the revered saint and social reformer whose teachings of equality, compassion, and human dignity continue to inspire India’s social ethos.
Dera Ballan, located in Ballan village some eight km from Jalandhar city, was founded in the early twentieth century by Sant Pipal Das.