Punjab Congress President Captain Amarinder Singh. (File Photo) Punjab Congress President Captain Amarinder Singh. (File Photo)

The Congress has readied a sharp attack on Punjab’s ruling BJP-SAD combine using the issue of water sharing as the state goes to polls. The Congress Party released its manifesto for the upcoming Punjab Assembly elections on Monday and it seems water sharing issue, primarily relating to Sultlej-Yamuna link, will be the centre of the party’s election campaign. The party also seems to be taking a leaf from former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s books by resorting to the politics of freebies to woo Punjabi voters.

The Sutlej-Yamuna-Link (SYL) was expected to heat up the election battle and the Congress party has listed it as their top agenda in their manifesto. Captain Amarinder resigned last year from Lok Sabha along with 42 MLAs of the Punjab Congress legislature party in protest of a Supreme Court verdict that quashed a legislation that allowed Punjab to wriggle out of its responsibility to build the SYL canal calling it unconstitutional.

WATCH VIDEO | Congress Punjab Manifesto Released: Here’s What It Promises

“Punjab Da Paani, Punjab Vaaste (Punjab’s water is for its people only)” is the call given out by Congress to woo voters of the great agrarian state that thrives on agriculture supported by the five rivers that flow through it.

Apart from water sharing, the manifesto promises loan waivers and free power to farmers. It promises eradication of drug trade from the state. Contradicting its promise to provide employment in every household, it also promises ₹2,500 stipend to unemployed youths along with the increasingly popular poll promise–free mobile phones. The freebie promises also extend to Dalits as Congress has promised free houses to homeless Dalits, SCs and OBCs apart from the promise of one job per family.

At the outset, Amarinder’s promise to generate 2.5 million jobs in the state over five years seems outlandish. The scale of job he has promised to achieve is mammoth and it seems they didn’t do much calculation before coming to that figure. According to National Sample Survey Office, an organisation under the Union Ministry of Statistics, the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre could only create 15 million jobs from 2004-2012 in the entire country.

While neither the party nor the manifesto declares Captain Amarinder Singh as the chief ministerial candidate, chapters like Captain’s Punjab, Captain de naun nukte and others indicate that the party is pipping him for the top post. It is an uphill task for the Congress which has lost its mandate massively over the last decade. However, the ruling party is not in a good shape as well. Captain Amarinder has served as chief minister before and is no stranger to the state’s politics or its ground issues.

Nonetheless, the party finds itself in a weak situation and it seems it has decided to rake up contentious issues like water sharing and drugs trade to corner the ruling parties and at the same time attempt at appeasing the masses through freebie politics.

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