The package was doled out with the aim to beat back recession and check unemployment and thus woo voters, but how far it translates into solid votes is yet to be seen.

The package of Rs 1,500 crore includes Rs 625 crore for infrastructure, Rs 100 crore for bricklining water channels in the state and Rs 100 crore for the NAREGA scheme. In an effort to provide jobs, the government has made public its decision to recruit 75,100 employees, of which 43,500 youth have already been appointed in various departments, including police, education, public health and engineering.

Having completed four years, the Hooda government is set to face its first litmus test in the Lok Sabha elections. No wonder that with a bagful of incentives, Hooda has been playing Santa of late.

The spiel that the Congress hopes to give the state voters is that it freed the people of the state from the “clutches of corruption and pitchforked the small backward state into the league of big, industrialised and progressive cousins”.

The government has worked on a roadmap for campaigning in the state which is dotted with its achievements and milestones of its performance. On the top of its inventory is its achievement of obtaining 9 per cent growth rate and highest per capita income among the large states, with only Goa figuring above Haryana. Finance Minister Birender Singh said the state’s per capita income has increased to Rs 38,720 in 2007-08 from Rs 35,779 in 2006-07 at constant prices and to Rs 56,280 from Rs 49,038 at current prices.

The state also topped the list of states with per capita investment of Rs 78,500, according to the September 2007 report of the Centre for Monitoring of Indian Economy (CMIE). Five years back, the state stood on the 13th rung of the ladder.