In a strong show of unity, top Congress leaders on Friday addressed large gatherings in Punjab, pledging to resurrect the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) if the party returns to power in the state after the 2027 assembly elections. The 'MGNREGA Bachao Sangram' rallies in Balachaur and Samrala saw senior figures dismissing claims of internal rift and training their guns on both the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre.
Congress's Firm Promise: A Special Provision for MGNREGA
Bhupesh Baghel, the former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister and Congress's general secretary in-charge for Punjab, made a significant announcement. He declared that the Congress would create a special provision to restore MGNREGA in Punjab upon forming the government in 2027. Baghel went a step further, stating that if the BJP-led central government failed to revive the scheme nationally by 2029, a Congress-led Centre under Rahul Gandhi as Prime Minister would ensure its revival.
Baghel launched a scathing attack on the BJP, alleging that its real intention was to "completely scrap the scheme." He accused the BJP of transforming the rights-based law into a charity and altering the fund allocation system to undermine it. "The new law replacing MGNREGA is just a facade to deceive the poor and the marginalised," he asserted, contrasting his party's commitment to the poor with the BJP's alleged focus on "a select few friends."
Unified Leadership Dismisses Factionalism, Targets AAP & BJP
Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Raja Warring, speaking at the Samrala rally, framed the upcoming electoral battle as a clear choice. He branded the BJP and the AAP as "two sides of the same coin." While holding the BJP responsible for scrapping MGNREGA, he accused the AAP government in Punjab of having utterly failed in its implementation earlier.
To substantiate his claim, Warring cited a stark example from Ludhiana, where, he said, only 12 families out of 1.21 lakh covered under the scheme received the promised 100 days of work. He vehemently dismissed opposition claims of Congress being a divided house, attributing such rumours to the political bankruptcy of the BJP and AAP. "Since the opposition parties have nothing, they were spreading rumours about factionalism in our party," Warring stated.
Addressing the women in the audience, Warring reminded them of the Congress's past initiatives like free bus travel and urged them to "reward us for what we did for you and punish the AAP for its betrayal." He criticized women for voting for AAP based on its "fake promise" of Rs 1,000.
Historical Context and Accusations of Misgovernance
Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Partap Singh Bajwa, provided historical context, reminding the crowd that MGNREGA was initiated by the Congress in 2005 after extensive consultations. He pointed out that the parliamentary standing committee that scrutinised the bill was headed by BJP leader Kalyan Singh.
Bajwa then turned his fire on the AAP government, accusing it of looting the state's resources. He highlighted the alleged plunder of sand from riverbeds, claiming that Punjab's annual income from sand mining should be around Rs 20,000 crore. "Where has all this money gone?" he questioned, demanding accountability from the Mann administration.
He also accused Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann of interfering in religious institutions and challenged him to list his achievements for Punjab over the last four years instead of questioning others.
The rallies, held on January 10, 2026, successfully projected a cohesive Congress front, firmly placing the revival of MGNREGA and the alleged failures of both the BJP and AAP at the centre of its campaign narrative for the 2027 Punjab elections.
