The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its ‘ sankalp patra’ (manifesto) for the upcoming Assembly elections on Friday in which it has promised to provide “quality flour” at the rate of ₹2 per kg to the poor, 10 lakh jobs in the next five years, and a “gift” of ₹51,000 to the daughters of poor widows at the time of their marriage, among other sops.
The manifesto was released by the party’s senior leadership, including Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari; Prakash Javadekar, who is the Delhi elections in-charge; and Harsh Vardhan, who was in-charge of formulating the document on the basis of 11,35,636 suggestions from as many respondents.
Several BJP MPs were also present on the occasion.
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“The BJP’s politics is not based on falsehood and communalism. It is continuously working to change the fate of the poor, the workers, the farmers and the country. For starting the ‘bullet train’ of development, Delhi needs a BJP government,” Mr. Gadkari said.
While the issue of conferring Statehood to Delhi — one of the BJP’s oldest poll promises — was missing from its manifesto this time, the party said it would not only “allow the continuance” of the flagship power and water subsidies implemented by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Delhi government. The enactment of the Lokpal too, it said, would be “a priority” if the BJP formed the government.
These subsidies, the party argued, would benefit the people of Delhi “more” since they would be in place “for 60 months and will implement them in a better manner”. This, even as it promised cheaper power through competition between the two discoms , a city “free from [water] tankers” and “perfect synergy” between all three levels of government from the Centre down to the level of civic bodies in addition to filling up all vacancies in government departments.
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Women empowerment
Empowering women and transgenders would also be a priority for the BJP, it said, besides the creation of a Sanskrit Board to promote the language, an All India Institute of Homeopathic Medicine to “boost research in the field of homeopathy” and promoting traditional Indian sports such as kabaddi, kho-kho, malkhamb and kushti.
Apart from 10 new colleges and 200 new schools, the party also promised education and health budgets increasing at the rate of 10% per year, 10,000 ‘green buses’, free electric scooties for girls and young women. It also promised the deployment of female home guards to make public places safer for women.
“A comprehensive scheme for the development of unauthorised colonies [now authorised] will be framed and now a dedicated Colonies Development Board will be formed... A new ‘Prosperous Delhi Infrastructure Scheme’ will be started through which construction of better roads, flyover and other basic amenities will be done on priority basis,” Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said.