With months to go for Assembly elections in Punjab, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has stepped up its political outreach in the border state, increasingly relying on Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini to expand its independent political footprint and connect with the sizeable Other Backward Class (OBC) and rural electorate. In the last seven months, Saini has been seen at nearly 70 events across Punjab in what is being viewed as a deliberate outreach strategy by the BJP to strengthen its position in a state where it currently holds just two seats in the 117-member Assembly. The party’s focus is also seen as an attempt to consolidate support among communities forming a significant share of Punjab’s nearly 31% OBC population, including groups such as Sainis and Ramgarhias, many of whom are Sikhs. Saini himself belongs to the OBC community and has emerged as one of the most visible BJP faces in Punjab since the party’s split from the Shiromani Akali Dal.…