The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which secured a historic mandate in 2022 based on a ‘vote for change’ and a host of freebies to lure voters, is struggling to fulfil the poll guarantees.
half of the promises were parked for the last year of the tenure; a similar number remain unfulfilled While only a couple of promised freebies were implemented in the first year.
The Shiromani Akali Dal accused the AAP government of looting Punjab in the name of freebies and guarantees.
In an election year, competence is not announced in a scheme. Future generations will be forced to pay the price for today’s political gimmicks and fiscal irresponsibility,” Bajwa said. Heavy subsidies and recurring transfers have deepened the argument that Punjab is spending tomorrow’s revenue on today’s loyalty.
The list also includes the unmet promise to provide MSP on every crop and make farmers debt-free – a promise still unmet. The Shiromani Akali Dal accused the AAP government of looting Punjab in the name of freebies and guarantees. AAP is not building Punjab’s future, it is borrowing against it. In over four and a half years, Punjab has opened only two new government schools and shut down seven. The school dropout rate has also touched the six lakh mark. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann claimed his government has fulfilled every guarantee the party promised to the people of Punjab. “Punjab is moving on the path of progress. We have started a new tradition in politics by completing all promises in four years, whereas other parties were not able to do so even in five years. We fulfilled our first poll promise within three months. “The opposition has no issues left against our government, which is why they are indulging in cheap politics. “Nobody is going to check the list of how many promises were deferred or how many are pending. People only remember what they got in return. Doles are a proven formula to retain the vote bank. The AAP’s guarantees speak volumes about its outreach and a simple claim that the party now reaches people where older regimes did not. “That is not a small political achievement. The economists and analysts also warn that the problem is that relief is not the same as repair. “Capital spending suffers when the exchequer is committed to bills that arrive every month. Crime, extortion and the drug trade remain the charges the opposition will not drop. Farm unions still say procurement and rural safety nets have not matched the promise. Welfare can shift the conversation. Doles will work, but deficiencies in services – like strikes by the Aam Aadmi Clinic staff over meagre salaries, empty gyms, poor school infrastructure, allegations that the jobs were given to outsiders, and the non-payment of pending dues to the six lakh employees will work as a yardstick to measure performance. That is also the risk of a politics built on delivery. When the transfer arrives, the party looks indispensable. When a clinic shuts, the same voter is sent back to crowded district hospitals. AAP can still argue that no rival will roll back free power or women’s mobility. It cannot argue that the health and education models are settled while its own staff are on strike. It is tested on the trajectory of performance and delivery.
The two schemes implemented in the first year of the tenure that truly benefited the people, despite the additional financial burden on the exchequer, are 300 units of free household power and free bus travel for women. These schemes are: Mukh Mantri Mawan-Dheeyan Satkar Yojana (Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 to women); Meri Rasoi Yojana, free registration for ten lakh workers, the Punjab State Outsourced Personnel Act, 2026 and Expansion of Mukh Mantri Sehat Yojana (Rs 10 lakh cover). End corruption and provide women with Rs 1,000 from day one-started only in 2026; the opposition also wants arrears for the missed years. Revenue claims used to fund welfare, including figures such as Rs 20,000 crore from mining and other sources, were cited as failed arithmetic, not actual money in the bank. “The same party that promised not to take even a single penny in fresh debt is now planning to borrow Rs 50,000 crore in just one year. Punjab’s debt is projected to soar to Rs 4.47 lakh crore, leaving every Punjabi burdened with Rs 1.04 lakh debt. Here is why, despite deferring the guarantees, handouts will benefit AAP Psephologists say that while deferring the guarantees until the last year of the tenure speaks volumes about the empty coffers, the handouts like Rs 1,000 per month to women, besides the free bus travel, 300 free units and cashless treatment will help AAP regain a sizeable vote bank. Free power of up to 300 units, cash and food support, regularised contract workers and neighbourhood clinics are meant to prove that governance can be felt in a bill, a bus ride and a medical test.
Promises still treated as unfulfilled or only partly met are: Drug-free Punjab in weeks/months, plus fast rehabilitation – not delivered; the drug problem remains a live charge; 25 lakh jobs – the government cites about 65,000 government jobs and 5.5 lakh “opportunities,” which critics say is far short. Punjab Leader of Opposition, Pratap Singh Bajwa, said AAP betrayed people in the name of freebies and overburdened the state exchequer. He also said that AAP’s Education Revolution (Sikhya Kranti) is exposed by its own government records. Bringing transparency to administration and providing employment to the youth have been our biggest achievements,” he said. Our government has taken historic steps for public welfare and state development over the past four years,” he said. This will assuredly help the ruling AAP in Punjab,” said Professor Pramod Kumar, Chairman, Institute for Development and Communication (IDC), Panjab University, Chandigarh. In a state long trapped between farm distress and fiscal stress, monthly relief is easier to defend than distant reform,” says Professor Kumar. It cannot erase those files,” says Professor Varinder Sharma, Director, IDC.
Interestingly, a resource crunch compelled the AAP government to park five major poll promises until the last year of its tenure. Mann denied the allegations of the opposition parties that the guarantees were either pushed to the last year of the tenure to betray the people.
