The Congress on Wednesday released its manifesto for the Assembly elections in Haryana, promising a caste survey and legal guarantee for the minimum support prices for agricultural produce if it comes to power.

A minimum support price is the rate at which the government buys farm produce and is based on a calculation of at least one and a half times the cost of production incurred by the farmers.

Earlier this year, farmers from Haryana and Punjab launched an agitation against the Union government, seeking a law guaranteeing a minimum support price for agricultural commodities and the implementation of the MS Swaminathan Commission Report’s wider recommendations on farming in India.

The Congress pledged to conduct a caste survey and increase the creamy layer threshold from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.

The “creamy layer” principle is applied to reservations in education and government jobs for Other Backward Classes and excludes from affirmative action programmes individuals whose families have accumulated social and economic privileges over the years.

As part of its “seven guarantees”, the Congress promised to enhance social security, work towards women’s empowerment and provide housing for the poor.

The Opposition party promised gas cylinders priced at Rs 500 and a monthly payment of Rs 2,000 to women aged between 18 and 60. It also promised a monthly pension of Rs 6,000 for the elderly, disabled and widows, and the reinstatement of the old pension scheme.

The party also promised to provide 300 units of free electricity and free medical treatment of up to Rs 25 lakh.

“We will implement these guarantees and that is why we have named it ‘Saat Vaade, Pakke Irade’ [seven promises, committed intentions],” Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said at the manifesto launch event.

Haryana will head for the polling in a single phase on October 5. The counting of votes will take place on October 8, alongside that of the Jammu and Kashmir elections.