He also conveyed that his party has brought infrastructure development, economic revitalisation, development and modernisation to the centre-stage. And it is quite capable of winning the ensuing elections on these issues and not on the contentious Hindutva, and Ram temple.

The finance minister’s proposal to explore the possibility of making countervailing duty for the power sector cenvatable and extending various benefits to this sector up to 2012 are quite encouraging for the achievement of much debated capacity addition of 1 lakh mw by the end of the 11th plan.

As expected, the Opposition slammed Mr Singh for his election gimmicks but BJP and its allies claimed these proposals would help continuously enhance the growth momentum which the country has achieved. By reiterating the government’s commitment for garib ke pet me dana, grihini ki tukia mein anna” Mr Singh has sought to puncture the Congress’ electoral plank of Congress ka hath garibonke sath.

Mr Singh, whose speech was delayed by over an hour following the Opposition’s attempt in vain to expose the Centre by showing certain technical and legislative flaws, was at his best when he took a swipe at Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who had last year attacked the Vajpayee government’s economic policies by terming it as Mungerilal’s sweet dreams. The finance minister was categorical that the government’s various initiatives have helped the country to shine and it is poised for a 7.5-8 per cent GDP growth.

The minister may have retaliated the Congress-led Opposition’s criticism, but he and his party would have to convince the Sangh Parivar and certain allies which have claimed that the feel-good factor is visible only in urban areas and it has not yet touched the hinterlands. Sadhvi Rhitambara, who is otherwise quite vocal on the Ram Mandir and Hindutva issues, for a change spoke against the Centre’s claims of ‘Indian Shining’. The BJP would also have to satisfy one of its important allies, Shiv Sena, which has expressed serious apprehensions over the economic benefits trickling down to the grassroot levels.

The Congress, on a comeback bid, will have to do a lot of homework to expose the aggressive ‘India Shining’ campaign being run by the government and BJP. Ironically, the Congress, responsible for launching the structural reforms during in 1990s, has to do a lot of running to catch up with the BJP’s lead in the run-up to the campaign trail.

The Nationalist Congress Party doubts how the budget proposals will help farmers. So also Bahujan Samaj Party opined that proposals would mislead voters and feared that it would only increase deficit in the next budget.

Mr Singh stuck to his sops announced in indirect taxes early January but desisted from doling out fresh sops to the salaried class in revising I-T limit..