The ruling Congress victory may rejoice the win in the by-poll for the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat, but bearing the burden of expectations would not be easy for the cash-strapped Amarinder Singh government as fulfilling key promises made in Assembly polls remains a big challenge.

Despite having backtracked from its promise for a total farm loan waiver to a partial farm loan waiver,  even fulfilling the same along with another key promises like job to every household appears in uphill task for the Congress government.

Having wresting the Gurdaspur Lok Saba seat from the Bhartiya Janata Party and defied the saffron party’s “Modi factor” again, the Chief Minister (CM) Amarinder on Sunday indicated that the state’s government hope of getting a helping hand from the Narendra Modi-led Centre government for its farm loan waiver scheme may not be fulfilled.

The Punjab government has been seeking Centre’s help for relaxation in the norms to help in borrow a loan of about Rs 10,000 Crore, but as this demand has been pending some time now despite the CM’s repeated visits to New Delhi, Amarinder on Sunday said the state government may have to raise the resources for the loan waiver on its own.

This again may prove a challenge given the precarious financial health of the government which for couple of months have been struggling to pay salaries of its employees on time.

This is despite that indebted farmers are fast losing hope and vernacular media has been reporting farmer suicides on daily basis for past few months.

The same goes for jobs for every household promise as it will take time to generate jobs and in most cases  the unemployed lack the employability for even private sector jobs.

The menace of drugs may have reduced and supply of drugs may not be easily available anymore, but there is nothing indicate that the demand side of the problem has been addressed.

The social security pensions, Rs 750 per month, also remain extremely low in the state and the government promise to make them at par with the other states doesn’t seem realistic in near future due to paucity of funds again.

A big factor in Congress candidate Sunil Jakhar’s victory by nearly two lakh votes in Gurdaspur  on Sunday is again the expectation of the people from Amarinder government.

By giving lead in all nine Assembly segments of the Parliamentary constituency, voters have again reminded the Congress of the promises it needs to keep.