It’s raining sops in run-up to Lok Sabha, Assembly polls

Tribune News Service

Pradeep Sharma

Chandigarh, September 8

A large number of freebies are being announced ahead of the parliamentary and Assembly elections in Haryana, with the ruling and the opposition parties embarking on massive mass contact programmes to woo voters.

A bag of goodies

• Congress: Rs 6,000 old-age pension, 300 units of free electricity, 2 lakh permanent jobs, 100-yard plots to SCs/BCs
• BJP: Overall development of the state, benefits to genuine beneficiaries, end to corruption and nepotism in jobs
• AAP: Free power and water, world-class education and healthcare, and end to corruption and dynastic politics

While Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is going the whole hog with his flagship Jan Samvaad programmes under BJP’s area-specific sops to voters, his bête noire and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has started Jan Milan to connect with the masses. Hooda has already organised nine editions of Vipaksh Aapke Samaksh to offer freebies and target the government for its failures.

“The BJP-JJP government has been a failure on all fronts. Every section of society is at the receiving end of its various acts of omission and commission. The Congress’ mass contact programme is getting a tremendous response,” Hooda has claimed.

Khattar, on the other hand, is patting his government on the back for pioneering Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, besides providing efficient administration and various government benefits through the Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP) and ending nepotism and corruption in recruitment. During his Jan Samvaad programmes, Khattar is astutely focusing on local issues and announcing area-specific sops.

However, Hooda is going populist, promising the abolition of PPP, offering Rs 6,000 old-age pension, 300 units of free electricity, 2 lakh permanent jobs and plots of 100 yards to Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes. Revival of the Old Pension Scheme is also high on Hooda’s agenda.

Besides Hooda, senior Congress leaders — Randeep Singh Surjewala, Kumari Selja and Kiran Choudhary — are also making their presence felt.

Seeking to replicate the success of its Delhi and Punjab models in Haryana, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal has gone a step ahead by offering several freebies, including fee electricity and water, world-class education and healthcare and an end to corruption and dynastic politics.

Meanwhile, seeking to revive the once-powerful party, lone INLD MLA Abhay Chautala is currently organising a “Parivartan yatra” across the state.

Similarly, Meham MLA Balraj Kundu, who recently floated the Haryana Jansevak Party, promising a clean alternative to existing parties, is organising mass contact programmes.

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