 "Rajasthan Assembly elections: Inflation plan at centre of BJP's manifesto")
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday, through its manifesto for the Rajasthan elections, responded to the ruling Congress’ “seven guarantees” and the Ashok Gehlot government’s welfare schemes.
Its manifesto focused on farmers and women, promising to double the PM Kisan Nidhi entitlement to Rs 12,000, purchasing wheat at Rs 2,700 a quintal, and providing cooking gas cylinders to poor households for Rs 450 each.
With campaigning in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh ending on Wednesday evening, and the electorate in the two states scheduled to poll on Friday, the BJP and Congress have shifted their focus to Rajasthan, which votes on November 25.
With Congress leader Rahul Gandhi stationing himself in Rajasthan for the next few days, the party has undertaken the “Congress guarantee yatra” across the state, asking potential beneficiaries to enrol for its promised welfare schemes, including expanding its measure to provide cooking gas cylinders at Rs 500 to cover over 10 million families.
The BJP has responded by unveiling a 75-page manifesto, which features a dozen full-page photographs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, underscoring that the party was contesting the Assembly election under his leadership, and has not projected a chief ministerial face. The only photograph of former chief minister Vasundhara Raje in the document also features leader of Opposition in the Assembly Rajendra Rathore, state unit chief C P Joshi, BJP national president J P Nadda, and Modi. Nadda released the manifesto in Jaipur. As in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP in Rajasthan too has promised purchasing wheat at Rs 2,700 per quintal. The Centre fixed the minimum support price of wheat last month at Rs 2,275 per quintal, and the BJP in Rajasthan and MP has committed to paying a bonus over that to buy it at Rs 2,700 per quintal.
The Congress in MP has committed to buying wheat at Rs 2,600 per quintal.
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In Rajasthan, the BJP has said it will increase the PM Kisan Nidhi entitlement to Rs 12,000 annually for each small and marginal farmer. Currently, farmers receive Rs 6,000 from the Centre. The Madhya Pradesh government, run by the BJP, paid an additional Rs 4,000 in that state, and has also promised increasing it to Rs 12,000. In its manifesto, the BJP stated that seven million farmers in Rajasthan benefited from PM Kisan Nidhi.
The BJP’s manifesto has promised Rs 5 thalis under the Annapurna scheme, which the Vasundhara Raje government started in 2016, while the Gehlot government expanded it as the “Indira Rasoi” scheme in August 2020, which helped the urban poor get cooked food. The party accused the Gehlot government of running a corrupt administration that indulged in “appeasement”. It committed to improving the law and order situation, set up “anti-Romeo squads”, an “anti-terrorist commando centre”, and an “anti-gangster task force” in the state.
The BJP has said it will constitute a special investigation team to probe examination paper “leak” incidents.
The BJP has promised providing 250,000 government jobs over the next five years. It stated it would strive to create a $350 billion economy in the state, and invest Rs 40,00.