Punjab's politics was hit by a raging torrent on Thursday in the form of a Supreme Court verdict that a state law scrapping water-sharing agreements with other states was "unconstitutional".

Observers say the poll-bound state may even end up under President's Rule in the near future with Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh resigning from his Lok Sabha seat in protest and his party MLAs quitting en-masse from the state assembly, while leaders from other parties including the ruling SAD may follow suit. The top court said the Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal, which is at the centre of a row between Punjab and Haryana, has to be completed.

THE WATER AND FARMER CARD



At the root of the dispute is water, an emotive issue in SAD-BJP-ruled Punjab where elections are due early next year. Every party wants to be seen as furthering the cause of the state's crisis-hit farmers who perceive any water flowing through the canal would be at their cost.

READ | Punjab can't scrap water sharing with states, says Supreme Court; Amarinder, Congress MLAs resign



The Congress was in power in Punjab in 1982 when Indira Gandhi flagged off the project.

The venture, however, got stalled in the state during the Khalistan movement. In 2004, the then Amarinder-led government passed the Punjab Termination of Agreement Act, 2004, that stopped construction of the SYL canal designed to carry Haryana's portion of the Ravi-Beas waters from Punjab. The neighbouring state took the matter to court.

In March this year, the Parkash Singh Badal government decided to de-notify the 5,376 acres acquired for the project with the passage of the Punjab Sutlej-Yamuna Link Land (Return of Property Rights) Bill, 2016, to facilitate the return of 3,928 acres to villagers. But within a week of the passage of the bill, the top court asked Punjab to maintain status quo.

NOT A SINGLE DROP WILL GO OUT OF PUNJAB: BADAL



While CM Badal hastily convened an emergency meeting of his council of ministers to discuss the "crisis" provoked by Thursday's SC order, his son and deputy, Sukhbir Badal, had already made it clear that his government would go to any lengths to block the canal's completion.

"We will not allow a single drop of (Ravi-Beas) water to go out from Punjab," Badal said on the sidelines of an official function in Adampur near Jalandhar ahead of the Cabinet meeting on Thursday evening. The deputy CM blamed the Congress and former PM Indira Gandhi for planning and executing the construction of the canal "against Punjabi interests".

But minutes after the news of the Supreme Court order came in, Amarinder dashed off a letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker, conveying his decision to resign his parliamentary seat (Amritsar). All Congress party MLAs too quit their Assembly seats simultaneously.

SAD RESPONSIBLE FOR ACUTE WATER SCARCITY: CAPTAIN



In his letter, Amarinder said he had decided to quit "as a mark of protest against the deprivation of the people of my state of the much-needed Sutlej river water." He blamed the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal for bringing the people of Punjab to "this pitiable pass," where they face imminent devastation from acute water scarcity.

READ: Punjab, Haryana lock horns over SYL canal as Punjab de-notifies land acquisition



Amarinder insisted that CM Parkash Singh Badal and his government had failed to defend Punjab's stand in the court, leading to the adverse verdict. AAP, which had earlier been slow to realise emotive potential of the SYL issue, also responded with a measured mix of anger and rhetoric as state convener Gurpreet Ghuggi announced a "new morcha (demonstration)" starting from Kapoori, the village in Patiala District where Indira Gandhi inaugurated the digging of the canal in April 1982. Among other leaders, Sanjay Singh accused the Congress and SAD of indulging in histrionics while HS Phoolka claimed his party is "prepared to make any sacrifice" on the issue.

SUTLEJ YAMUNA LINK'S BLOODY PAST

The SYL has a long and bloody history that includes the assassination of SAD chief Harchand Longowal in August 1985, the killings of Punjab irrigation chief engineer ML Sikri and his clerk in 1990 and Khalistani terrorists mercilessly gunning down 30 construction workers engaged in digging the canal near Chandigarh.

Analysts say the current political rhetoric which is already finding angrier echoes amid fringe hardline Sikh outfits such as the Dal Khalsa and the SAD faction headed by Simranjit Singh Mann, could easily fan more flames in the charged atmosphere ahead of the Assembly polls.