Though assembly elections in this state are a year away, the ruling coalition has opened its purse strings to give freebies to its people and MLAs. Will this help it score a hat-trick?
By Vipin Pubby in Chandigarh

With high-stake elections in Punjab less than a year away, the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government is now focused on attempting a hat-trick even though it is an uphill task for them.
The ruling coalition partners are making all-out efforts to please and appease different segments of society in a last-ditch effort to shore up support. It is in this context that the SAD with the help of the BJP at the center recently pushed through a bill to strengthen its Panthic credentials by making Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) an exclusive organization for Amritdhari or baptized Sikhs. It has also been doling out funds to villages through its Sangat Darshan programs and announcing substantial compensation for each farmer suicide due to indebtedness. It has set up a new pay commission to please government employees who form a substantial vote bank and has announced schemes for students and other sections of society.

GIFT TO MLAS

And even as the state’s finances remain in the doldrums, it has sought to give a parting gift to a substantial number of ruling coalition MLAs. In its latest move, the Parkash Singh Badal government appointed seven new Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPSs), taking the total number of such appointees to an all-time high of 25. This effectively translates into political largesse to nearly two-thirds of all ruling coalition members. The coalition partners have a total strength of 72 legislators out of a total of 117 in the assembly. Besides the 25 CPSs, there are 18 ministers and a speaker and a deputy speaker, taking the tally of those favorably “adjusted” at 45.

The concept of appointing CPS was brought about to circumvent the amendments to the Representation of People Act which restricts appointment of ministers to 15 percent of the strength of state assemblies. Punjab has exhausted its entire quota of 18 ministers and the only other way to “adjust” more is to appoint CPSs for which there is no quota.

CPS enjoy a status equivalent to that of ministers but they are not authorized to go through files or to take any decisions. They get a salary and other allowances of about Rs 1 lakh a month, a luxury chauffeur-driven car and a police escort vehicle. In case they wish to use their own private vehicle, they are entitled to a reimbursement of `18 per kilometer with no upper limit and an additional allowance of Rs 10,000 for salary and maintenance of the vehicle. Plus, they are entitled to an allowance of Rs 1,500 per day while travelling.

Besides a government house, they get free water and electricity and staff, which includes a private secretary or a steno, an assistant, clerk and a servant. They can also employ two other employees such as a telephone operator and a cook. That’s not all. In case they want to stay in their private residence, they are entitled to a House Rent Allowance of `50,000. They also get Leave Travel Allowance up to Rs 3 lakh per year. All this is in addition to their usual allowances and perks as MLAs. And as if that is not enough, they are not supposed to pay any income tax; the state government pays it on their behalf.

HIKES GALORE

The state government also enhanced the pay and allowances of the chief minister, the deputy chief minister, speaker, deputy speaker and MLAs last year. As per the decision, the salary of the speaker and deputy speaker was enhanced from Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000. Likewise, the salary of the CM was hiked from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh and that of ministers from Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000. Similarly, the salary/pension of MLAs/ex-MLAs had been revised from Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000. Certain allowances and perks admissible to all were also enhanced.

Ironically, the announcement for appointment of an unprecedented number of CPSs came on a day when the parliament was informed that Punjab came next only to Maharashtra for recording the highest number of farmer suicides. The report tabled in parliament confirmed the death of 56 farmers in Punjab due to indebtedness and successive crop failures.

PENNY-WISE, POUND-FOOLISH

What is also appalling is the fact that the government has been extravagant when it comes to pleasing political leaders and has lavishly spent on functions and providing security to so-called VVIPs. This, when the state’s financial situation has gone from bad to worse. Such is the extent of financial mess that recently the banks declined to advance loans to it for purchasing wheat. It was done only after central intervention.

The state government, as is now well-known, had been mortgaging public properties like shelter homes and circuit houses to pay salaries to its employees. Pension and other such payments to widows, handicapped and weaker sections of society have not been paid for months together. At least 25 employees unions are protesting the government’s failure to regularize their services.

The state’s per capita income has declined from number two position in the country to among the last 10. It now stands at Rs 92,000 only a little more than nation’s average at Rs 74,000. The state of industry in Punjab is also in dire straits with a large number of units shutting down or moving to other states. As per official reports, 6,550 units were declared sick till 2015.

However, these figures mean little to the government when it comes to the welfare of politicians and their favorites. The government has a lot of explaining to do to voters before the ensuing polls.

Though assembly polls are months away, political parties have already started campaigning in an attempt to be first off the block
By Vipin Pubby in Chandigarh

There are still nine months to go for Punjab assembly elections but major political parties are already in poll mode. Besides organizing a show of strength at various rallies, they have started working at the grassroots level and appear to be taking no chances.

The seriousness with which these parties are taking the polls is reflected in the fact that both the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have declared that the names of their party candidates would be announced six months ahead of elections. This is a far cry from the way the Congress conducted itself in the run-up to the 2012 assembly elections, when the names of some of its candidates were announced just a day before nominations were to close. In a couple of instances, the party ticket was changed at the last hour. Undoubtedly, the late decision harmed the party’s prospects, with those denied tickets working against the party nominee. The leadership also failed to reach out to the rebels. The Congress lost out with just 1.86 percent fewer votes than what was polled by the SAD-BJP combine. The Congress won 46 seats out of 117.

AAP RACES AHEAD

While the AAP is the new entrant here, it is ahead of its rivals in reaching out to people. The party has set up ward-wise committees, which no other rival has done so far. It has also launched a “parivaar jodo” program, where volunteers visit households and ask them to put a flag or poster outside their houses to support it. The party claims that the volunteers have already contacted over eight lakh households and that the program will continue till they meet all households in rural areas.

The AAP is looking forward to filling in the political vacuum which it believes the state is witnessing due to “public anger and frustration” with both the Congress and the ruling coalition partners—Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the BJP. After its phenomenal success in the Delhi elections, it has now set its eyes on Punjab, where it won all its four Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 general elections. And it believes that it stands an excellent chance to form a government here. One of the first pre-poll surveys, HuffPost-CVoter, predicted that the AAP was set to win 94 to 100 assembly seats out of a total of 117. The survey has placed the Congress at a distant second with 8 to 14 seats, while the SAD-BJP is expected to win a paltry 6 to 12 seats.

Buoyed by the claims of the survey and wanting to repeat its Delhi performance in Punjab, the party has been working diligently to make a mark. Party supremo and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has himself been spending time in Punjab and promised to visit it more frequently in the months to come. He proved to be quite a crowd-puller when he addressed an AAP rally at the historic Maghi Mela in Muktsar earlier this year. Media-persons reported an unusual phenomenon where Congress and Akali workers, who were ferried to the site in buses and tractor trolleys, walked over to the AAP rally to listen to Kejriwal!

SAD STATE

It was even reported widely that while preparing for the next political rally at Baisakhi Mela in Talwandi Saboo, a rattled SAD president and deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal exhorted party leaders to put their supporters through a pledge that they would not attend the AAP rally. And despite the fact that Kejriwal and his deputy, Manish Sisodia who was supposed to address the rally, could not turn up, the AAP rally received good response.
During his visits to the state, Kejriwal has made it a point to visit victims of terrorist attacks and families of farmers who had allegedly committed suicide due to debts. He has been able to muster good support even though political rivals call him and his party with disdain as the “topiwallas”. He has promised to camp in the state during the coming weeks and is personally looking at the campaign strategy.

Meanwhile, the SAD-BJP combine is looking at a hat-trick after a decade-long rule and has drawn up its own strategy. It has started projecting its achievements through a media blitzkrieg and is organizing a series of public meetings called “Sadbhavna” rallies. It is also closely watching the developments in the Congress and the AAP.

SAD, which claims to represent the Sikh Panth, has sharpened its stand on issues relating to the Sikh religion and clergy. It had to grapple with a string of sacrilegious acts last year when copies of the Guru Granth Sahib were found strewn across several villages of the state. It was obviously well-planned and these incidents caused much resentment in the state. While the opposition alleges that it was a ploy to divert the attention of the people from other pressing issues like the farmers’ agitation, the government claimed that radical groups had indulged in the acts to inflame passions and vitiate the peaceful atmosphere in the state.

SAD’s alliance partner, the BJP, too has started its campaign with the unprecedented step of making a Dalit leader the state party chief. Vijay Sampla, a first-time MP, who was earlier inducted in the Union ministry, has been appointed with a clear eye on the 32 percent Dalit vote in the state.

SERIOUS ISSUES

All the three major contenders have, however, serious problems to tackle before they make a bid to rule the state. The ruling coalition will be hard put to explain the continuing corruption and maladministration despite claims to the contrary. There are many factors which can go against them—deep resentment among farmers due to successive crop failures and scams in the purchase of seeds, failure to give a boost to the industry, growing unemployment, anger of contractual employees against their non-regularization, mafia controlling mining and trade, failure to fulfill the promises made in the manifesto and arrogance of power.

For the AAP, the biggest negative factor is the lack of a face to its campaign. The party cannot expect to win the elections with Kejriwal as the mascot. It lacks a credible leader in the state, particularly a Sikh one, who can be a respectable chief ministerial candidate. It also does not have known leaders in various constituencies and has even taken leaders and workers without adequate background screening.

As for the Congress, it continues to be its own enemy. After a three-year-long struggle to remove the state party chief, Partap Singh Bajwa, the party’s command was handed over to ex-CM Capt Amarinder Singh. However, his hands were tied with frequent interference from the party high command. Even the candidates announced by him for two Rajya Sabha seats were changed, leaving him red-faced. While it was a foregone conclusion that with his appointment as state party chief he would be the chief ministerial candidate, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi gave him a cold shoulder during his much-hyped visit here where he was supposed to be making this announcement.

All the three contenders will have to put their house in order before voters give their verdict.