It is a vote for realistic versus populist poll promises in the election to 90-member Assembly in Haryana, where the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress are locked in a straight contest.
Riding high on pro-incumbency and the Modi wave, BJP Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar believes he will take his party's tally to '75 plus' from the present 47 legislators, while Congress' two-time Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has been raising the pitch against unemployment, law and order and lack of development. The other opposition parties in the fray are two prominent regional political outfits -- the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and its breakaway the Jannayak Janata Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Swaraj India and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
With no promises to waive farm debt or job reservations for women, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) says its 25-page 'Sankalp Patra' titled 'Mhare Sapne Ka Haryana' is more realistic and practical than its rival Congress' "populist" manifesto.
Focusing on farmers, labourers, youth and industrialists, the saffron party manifesto pledges to give an interest-free crop loan of up to Rs 3 lakh to farmers and promises to complete a target of Rs 5,000 crore interest and penalty waiver on crop loans taken from cooperative banks. The BJP has also promised to give collateral-free loan of up to Rs 3 lakh to people belonging to the Scheduled Castes and free education to two girls from families whose total annual income is less than Rs 1.8 lakh. The Congress is trying to woo the youth, farmers and women with the promise of an allowance of Rs 10,000 per month to all unemployed post-graduates and Rs 7,000 to all unemployed undergraduates in its manifesto.
It has promised 33% reservation to women in government jobs and 50 per cent reservation in Panchayati Raj Institutions, in municipal corporations and city councils if it is voted to power in the State.