‘I feel voters are in a mood to write a new story this time’

“They listen to me with a lot of grace and patience. And when I look into their eyes,I feel they are in a mood to write a new story this time,” he says,getting behind the wheel and slowly making his way out of Deon village in Bathinda (Rural),a newly created reserved constituency from where the CPI’s Surjit Singh Sohi is contesting. Minutes earlier,he had told a decent gathering in Deon that “Punjab has become sick with cancer and cancer cannot be cured with Crocin”.

Talking of cure,he is trying his best to soothe his frayed vocal chords due to a cyst in his throat,by sipping honey-and-ginger syrup from a bottle given by a “well-wisher”.

He slows down as soon as he hits the main road and uses the time to catch up on the newspapers. “What happened at the dera yesterday,Chacha?” he asks one of his lieutenants seated behind. Briefed on the details from the events at Dera Sacha Sauda,Manpreet turns his attention back on the road. His next stops are Sangat Mandi and Kot Shamir in Bathinda.

“We haven’t got the right to vote in charity…we have got it after a lot of difficulty,” he tells the audience,peppering his speeches with Allama Iqbal’s Urdu couplets and invoking Shaheed Bhagat Singh every now and then.

Then come the important announcements. “Within 30 minutes of us forming the government,we’ll impose an education emergency,” he tells the crowd. He also promises one lakh jobs a year.

“I’ll end all extravagant expenditures of the government,” he goes on,each time underlining that having been finance minister,he knows where all the money goes. “Our non-Plan expenditure is around Rs 30,000 crore. I’ll divert five per cent of this to education,” he later explains to The Indian Express.

Taking care not to name his rivals in his speeches,Manpreet tries to make the larger point,saying both Akalis and the Congress “have fixed turns for each other” and that this time this system will not work.