Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday launched the party’s door-to-door campaign, informally sounding the poll bugle for the 2027 Punjab Assembly election from the Gidderbaha Assembly segment in his home district of Muktsar, seeking people’s feedback on their major problems and expectations from the next government.This is the first time that SAD has undertaken such a state-wide exercise.During his visit, Sukhbir, despite having his right arm in a plaster cast, himself filled out feedback forms at houses, spending 10-15 minutes at each place and asking residents to list their main concerns.The form lists 15 issues, including drugs, unemployment, Punjab’s debt, failed law and order, corruption, farmers’concerns over minimum support price (MSP), gangsters, alleged sacrilege under the Bhagwant Mann government, alleged fake police encounters, inflation, government spending on advertisements, stalled development works, problems concerning women, power cuts and high electricity bills, and the condition of government hospitals and schools, besides any other issue.Sukhbir said SAD workers would reach every household across the state over the next 20 days to record people’s concerns.“We want people to tell us what they want the government to do. The issues they identify will become the basis of our manifesto. It will be the people’s manifesto,” he said.He further said that the manifesto should be treated as a “legal document so that political parties which don’t abide by it are disqualified for five years”.Drugs emerged as one of the major issues during his interaction with residents. Sukhbir visited seven houses and interacted with family members, asking them various questions.He promised that once SAD returned to power, it would enact a stringent law against drug peddlers under which, he said, those involved in selling drugs would face 10 years in jail without bail and have their property confiscated.He also announced a series of welfare measures, including restoring the Atta-Dal scheme, providing 50 kg of wheat at Rs 4 per kg and pulses at Rs 20 per kg, increasing the Shagun scheme for marriage from Rs 51,000 to Rs 1 lakh for economically weaker families, and raising the old-age pension to Rs 3,100 per month. He said the eligibility age would be reduced to 60 years for men and 55 for women.Sukhbir promised five-marla plots to landless families within two months of an SAD government taking charge and said no house in Punjab would remain kutcha during the party’s next five-year term.He also promised to provide loans of up to Rs 10 lakh to youngsters to start businesses, with no interest charged for the first three years. He said the SAD would also bring a law requiring private industries to employ 75 per cent local youth.Sukhbir accused the Punjab Government of misleading even the high court in the dearness allowance (DA) matter, referring to the contempt proceedings in which the Chief Secretary was served notice to remain present at the next hearing. He said people would “teach AAP a lesson” in the upcoming elections and claimed the SAD would seek votes on its past performance and credibility.Taking a dig at former Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, who served as the Gidderbaha MLA thrice, Sukhbir said, “He has perhaps gone abroad; it will ease his pain.”On a possible SAD-BJP alliance, he said his current aim was to meet people and ask about their problems. About his uncle, Major (retd) Bhupinder Singh, joining BJP and becoming politically active in their home turf of Lambi, Sukhbir said, “I wish him the best of luck. Everyone has their own aspirations.”The Gidderbaha programme marks the next phase of SAD’s election outreach. Sukhbir has already completed 65 Assembly segment-level ‘Punjab Bachao Yatras’ and plans to cover smaller urban towns, starting a fresh programme in the next couple of days.Sukhbir is scheduled to undertake a bus yatra from Talwandi Sabo in Bathinda district from November 10, covering two to three Assembly constituencies a day.The campaign comes alongside other SAD outreach programmes, including the youth-focused ‘Vibe Punjab Di’ initiative and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s ‘Maawan-Dheeyan Insaaf Yatra’ against drugs.