126 CHAPTER 9


In resorting to this policy, the party may have hoped to attract votes from swing voters among the Jat Sikh farming community. As Table 9.3 shows, the percentage of voters who decided how to vote during the campaign or on the polling day itself was particularly large among those who voted for the Congress Party–led coalition. In addition, the party may have been swayed by protests by farmers’ organizations against the withdrawal of the free-power policy. The protests included urging farmers not to pay electricity bills. As Gill (2004) observes, this was one of the few instances where the different factions of the fragmented farmers’ movement in Punjab worked together. Having made governance a major topic of the election campaigns, the Congress Party–led government undertook some bold measures in this regard. It passed the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act (making Punjab the second state in India to do so), reduced the revenue deficit in 2003, encouraged public-private partnerships in infrastructure development, announced plans for significant decentralization in primary health and educa- tion services, and took some high-level measures against corruption (Front- line 2003; World Bank 2004a). However, a World Bank report that acknowl- edges these initiatives points to problems of subsequent implementation: “The urgency to reform and the hectic pace of policymaking, unfortunately, appears to be fading away” (World Bank 2004a, 7).


To promote the power-sector reforms, the government appointed an expert committee, led by Gajendra Haldea. Its recommendations included open access (removing entry barriers for private sector companies to engage in power generation, transmission, and distribution); reducing power theft through specific legislation; increasing tariffs for all categories of consumers; metering the power supplied to agriculture; reducing the staffing levels of the PSEB; and restructuring its debts. As the government notes on its website: “The Haldea committee, which has studied the post-reform power scenario in


Table 9.3 Timing of voting decisions, by party affiliation Party voted for in 2002 assembly elections (percent)


Timing of voting decision INC/CPI SAD/BJP/DBSM BSP Panthic Morcha During the campaign


On polling day


39 35


23 27


3 10


6 4


Source: Kumar and Kumar (2002). Notes: Coalition partners—BJP, Bharatiya Janata Party; BSP, Bahujan Samaj Party; CPI, Com- munist Party of India; DBSM, Dalit Bahujan Samaj Morcha party; INC, Indian National Congress (Congress Party); SAD, Shiromani Akali Dal (state party in Punjab). Percent- ages do not add up to 100 percent. The missing percentages were not included in the original sources.


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