By YP Rajesh and Shivangi Acharya
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promised on Sunday to create jobs, boost infrastructure and expand welfare programs if it wins a third term, seeking to address voters’ main concerns ahead of next week’s elections.
The general elections, which begin on April 19, will be held in seven phases until June 1. Votes will be counted on June 4 and results expected the same day.
Modi, 73, is widely tipped to win a record-breaking third term on the back of his 10-year record, which includes strong economic growth, infrastructure projects, social aid and aggressive Hindu nationalism.
Polls, however, suggest that unemployment, inflation and rural distress remain concerns in the world’s most populous country, despite its strong economy, and addressing them will be Modi’s biggest challenge.
“Our focus is on dignity of life… on quality of life, our focus is also on job creation through investment,” Modi said after releasing the manifesto, titled Modi’s Guarantee, at the headquarters of party in the capital.
Modi said the manifesto focuses on job creation in sectors such as infrastructure, aviation, railways, electric vehicles, green energy, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, among others, in a bid to address discontent over unemployment levels that are increasing despite strong economic growth.
“The youth of India will not even have imagined the number of opportunities that will come their way,” he cheered at BJP members, including top federal ministers who sat in the audience wearing stoles bearing the BJP’s lotus symbol.
CONGRESS CLAIMS EMPTY PROMISES
The main opposition Congress, which is struggling to revive its fortunes, said it was not impressed by a manifesto full of “empty promises”.
“Today people want to ask what happened in the last 10 years,” Congress MP Manish Tewari said. “Unemployment is rampant and inflation has broken the back of the common people. The people of the country will hold Modi to account for what has happened in the last 10 years.”
Modi has also promised to expand welfare programmes, including all Indians aged over 70 under an existing free health insurance scheme and pushing cooking gas connections into all homes to follow up on a subsidized cylinder scheme of cooking gas launched in 2016.
Other BJP promises include raising the loan cap for small and micro non-agricultural borrowers, providing free housing for 30 million more poor people and maintaining a free grains program for 800 million Indians until 2029.
The manifesto states that the BJP government will continue to focus on a path of low inflation and fiscal prudence to achieve high economic growth.
“The ambition of the country’s 1.4 billion people is Modi’s mission,” Modi said. “I am presenting this manifesto before people to seek their blessings. Please bless us… to increase our strength… implement this manifesto and ensure a developed India.”
Unemployment was the top concern of 27% of 10,000 voters surveyed by Lokniti-CSDS in 19 of India’s 28 states, with rising prices in second place at 23%, the Hindu newspaper reported last week .
The unemployment rate rose to 5.4% in 2022/23, from 4.9% in 2013/14, just before Modi came to power, and nearly 16% of urban youth in the 15-29 age group he remained unemployed in 2022/23 due to poverty. skills and the lack of quality jobs, official data shows.
“The BJP doesn’t even want to discuss the most important issues related to people’s lives,” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi wrote in X. “This time the youth will not fall into Modi’s trap, now they will strengthen the hand of Congress and bring an ’employment revolution’ in the country.”