Ahead of 2027 Punjab polls, AAP’s welfare spree sparks questions over timing, intent

As Punjab goes to Assembly polls in early 2027, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the last few months has rolled out a set of welfare schemes, prompting questions about whether the timing reflects genuine intent or an election-driven strategy.

Even as the Opposition parties have targeted the AAP government over the timing of launching welfare schemes amid the run-up to the Punjab elections, the AAP asserted that AAP’s intent is to serve the people and, despite the financial mess created by the previous government, the AAP has fulfilled its pre-poll guarantees.

With barely a few months left for the Assembly election in Punjab, the State government on July 1 started its ‘Mukh Mantri Mawan Dhian Satikar Yojna’, under which women above 18 years of age from the general category will receive ₹1,000 every month, while those belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC) category will receive ₹1,500. This was one of the key pre-poll promises on which the AAP sought votes during its election campaign in the 2022 Assembly election. The Opposition parties have repeatedly criticised the ruling party for taking years to roll out the cash payout, terming the move an election-eve gimmick timed to win over voters before the next elections.

All India Congress Committee general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Surjewala, talking to The Hindu on Tuesday (July 28, 2026), said that while voters in Punjab elected the AAP government on March 16, 2022 with high expectations of change but the government kept waiting for almost five years to “start this scheme”, and has now launched it just a few months before the election, which is nothing more than a mere “election trick”.

“Inclusive, participative development and making people partners in the State’s progress is intrinsic to our democracy. But what Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and his government are doing is a tool to befool, dupe and deceive gullible and simple Punjabis, including our sisters and mothers,” said Mr. Surjewala.

“The State is passing through a financial emergency. Punjab government needs ₹21,472 crore every year to implement the scheme. Does the State have the money to sustain the scheme? Or are such schemes merely for three months up till the elections as a vote-garnering exercise? If Mr. Mann and AAP were sincere in making the women of Punjab participants in governance, then why did he wait five years until the very end of his tenure to initiate the scheme?” quipped the Congress leader.

Asserting that the Punjab government was following the “deception model of the Bharatiya Janata Party government of Maharashtra”, he said, “Before the general elections in Maharashtra in November 2024, BJP announced the ‘Ladki Behen Yojana’ to give ₹1,500 every month, and after the elections, it deleted the names of 80 lakh women. BJP did the same in Haryana and later embroiled the scheme in technicalities. Your playbook of deception and trickery is the same.

Earlier, in January this year, the Punjab government also launched ‘Mukh Mantri Sehat Yojna’, extending free treatment of up to ₹10 lakh to every family. Also, the government started Meri Rasoi Yojna, which provides free quarterly kitchen kits to economically weaker families.

Meanwhile, Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Cheema said that AAP is the first government in the country to guarantee free healthcare, free education, free electricity and free bus travel for women.

“When we came to power, Punjab was in an economic morass and debt trap due to the previous faulty policies of successive governments of the Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal. We have improved the situation. Adequate financial arrangements have been made for the welfare schemes. We gave 300 units of free power and ‘Pind clinics’. The AAP government has provided ₹1 crore to the families of defence personnel who lost their lives in the line of duty. He further said that the State government provides a ₹2 crore honorarium to the families of police personnel in case of losing their lives during duty. All this shows our intent of serving the people of Punjab is absolutely clear,” he said.

“Punjab government reserved posts for the Scheduled Castes for the first time for the appointment of law officers. The Congress and Akalis never thought about the betterment of the marginalised; it’s only the AAP that is doing overall development in Punjab,” he added.