Manpreet Badal, former Punjab finance minister and nephew of chief minister P S Badal, broke last year with the Akali Dal, complaining that his entreaties for fiscal discipline were being ignored, and would lead to disaster. He looks foolish today after the re-election of the Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party combine. However, the Akali victory was not based on economic development, as claimed by deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal. It won because of continuing populism: free electricity for farmers, the subsidised atta- dal scheme, free bicycles for girl students, shagun grants for poor girls.