In Madhya Pradesh, villages continue to reel under long load-shedding, but Minister of State of Energy (Independent Charge) Rajendra Shukla promises to make the electricity crisis a thing of the past – just wait till 2013.

"Madhya Pradesh is going to be self-sufficient in power generation by 2013," Shukla told PTI in an interview.

He claimed the state's generation capacity had been around 3,000 MW in 2003 and after the BJP came to power it has gone up to 6,000 MW, and the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government promises to add 5,000 MW more to it within three years. In 2013, the peak demand is expected to be 11,000 MW and the installed generation capacity will be the same, he said.

By the way, can you guess when the state is due to go to polls. You got it right, in 2013.

This is no different from what Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has promised. His state has an aggregate power demand of 9,000 MW today, but after all these years, it has managed to build up generation capacity of 6,900 MW. But Badal promises to set up generation capacity of 14,000 MW by 2012, which coincidentally will be the election year.

Note: If you have come across some such outrageous promises made by politicians you can send them to feedback@governancenow.com to be considered for publication.