BJP, Congress brace for showdown in Punjab over new rural jobs scheme

Punjab is set to witness a political face-off this week as the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress gear up for competing in State-wide campaigns over the Centre’s decision to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) with the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Act, 2025

The BJP will begin its awareness campaign launching on January 7, 2026, while the Congress has announced a State-wide protest movement — ‘Save MGNREGA’, kicking off from Gurdaspur on January 8, 2026.

The BJP, according to its State president Sunil Jakhar, intends to “expose the misleading propaganda being spread by the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress against this welfare scheme for the poor”. “During the campaign, which will start from Fazilka, the people would be made aware about the benefits of VB-G RAM G. The party leadership and workers will cover all the Assembly constituencies in the coming days and will break this web of misinformation through an extensive public awareness programme,” Mr. Jakhar said on Tuesday.

“In the past, no one was held accountable for failing to provide 100 days of employment to labourers, but under the new law, accountability will be fixed, and the rights of the poor can no longer be denied. With the implementation of this scheme, corruption will be curbed, and the entire wage amount will directly reach the labourers’ bank accounts. This is precisely the reason why the AAP government and the Congress are opposing this new pro-poor scheme and spreading falsehoods about it in society,” added Mr. Jakhar.

The Congress, on the other hand, has termed the BJP’s campaign last-minute ‘fire fighting’ measure against the Congress’s nation-wide campaign, ‘MGNREGA Bachao Sangram’.

Congress State unit president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said, “The BJP was trying to defend the indefensible as it was worried about the party’s nation-wide campaign.”