With an eye on the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections, the ruling BJP is putting together a high-level team of strategists with a proven track record of delivering election victories.A day after appointing Satish Poonia as Punjab BJP in-charge, the party is likely to name Jal Shakti Minister Chandrakant Raghunath Paatil, 71, as election in-charge for the state.Paatil, the most trusted aide of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a former president of the Gujarat BJP, has a proven track record of delivering election wins for the party.Sources told The Tribune that Paatil was known for strong micromanagement and organisational skills, which would prove handy for the BJP in Punjab, where the party was still expanding and hoped to make an impact in the 2027 Assembly elections.The move to consider Paatil’s name as poll in-charge for Punjab underscores the high political significance PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah attach to the state, where alliance equations with erstwhile NDA ally Shiromani Akali Dal remain unclear and the BJP is officially insistent on going it alone on all 117 seats. Shah is also involved in Punjab planning and has already chaired an initial strategy meeting on the state last month.The sources said Paatil’s political experience would be leveraged in Punjab. The Jal Shakti Minister was Gujarat BJP president when the party created history by winning 156 of the 182 seats, the best saffron show since the inception of the state.A four-time Lok Sabha MP from Gujarat’s Navsari, Paatil clocked the highest Lok Sabha winning margin of 6.89 lakh votes in the 2019 elections, besides registering commanding victories in both 2014 and 2024 elections.Besides, he has been leading the management and planning in PM Modi’s Lok Sabha segment of Varanasi and is regarded as the Prime Minister’s closest confidant.Paatil’s most recent major assignment was as election co-in-charge of the 2025 Bihar elections, assisting then Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who was in-charge. The BJP-led NDA won that election handsomely.