BJP President Amit Shah on Saturday released the party's manifesto for the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh was present with Shah at the press conference in Raipur marking the release of the manifesto. The Congress had released its manifesto for Chhattisgarh on Friday.
The BJP manifesto, called the Sankalp Patra, declares Chhattisgarh would be developed along the lines of the vision of the party's first prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. While releasing the manifesto, Raman Singh slammed the Congress for seeing farmers as a “vote bank”.
The BJP's manifesto, like the Congress's document, has ample amount of freebies. The BJP has promised it would give free bicycles to all students in class-9. The BJP manifesto for Chhattisgarh also promises to give interest-free loans of up to Rs 2 lakh for women entrepreneurs.
Extolling the achievements of the Raman Singh government, which first assumed office in 2003, Shah noted its progress in lifting Chhattisgarh from its position of being a backward state. Shah noted Chhattisgarh was now a “cement and power hub” and a welfare state. Shah claimed the implementation of schemes like MNREGA in Chhattisgarh was “corruption free”.
Shah also complimented Raman Singh for “almost freeing” Chhattisgarh of Maoist activity. Shah's comment comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress of having links with “Urban Maoists” at a rally in Jagdalpur.
Interestingly, the Congress also released its manifesto for Madhya Pradesh on Saturday, which is identical to the document for Chhattisgarh on many counts. Both manifestos promise farm loan waivers and laws to protect journalists, doctors and lawyers.
However, the Congress has not promised prohibition in Madhya Pradesh like it did in Chhattisgarh.
In both Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, the Congress has made many promises to farmers like announcing a big amount as bonus for crops.
Education and health remain a focus for the Congress in both Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh with special schemes for hospitalisation and school education.
While the Congress manifesto for Chhattisgarh has 36 poll promises, the Madhya Pradesh manifesto is a huge document of 112 pages and 973 promises.
In a surprise development, the Congress declared that it will give a stipend of RS 2,500 per month to unemployed youth and use their talent in various social schemes of the government.
(With inputs from Deepak Tiwari)