Bhopal: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday released individual manifestos for the 28 Madhya Pradesh assembly seats headed for bypolls on 3 November. Among other things, the manifestos promise free Covid-19 vaccines, just like the party did for the ongoing Bihar assembly election.
“We will fight the war with coronavirus together. The BJP government will make available a free vaccine to every person in the state,” reads the ruling party’s Sankalp Patra.
The manifestos come over 10 days after the Congress released its poll-promise document — an 84-page booklet with different promises outlined for each of the constituencies.
The BJP’s manifestos, meanwhile, comprise 28 two-page documents, one for each assembly seat. While one part of each booklet is devoted to constituency-specific promises, the other mentions promises that are meant for the state, which is currently led by a BJP government.
The Congress has made 52 new promises for the state, and the BJP, five. The BJP manifestos are largely a compilation of initiatives that were already underway or had been completed. These include the construction of a Rs 6,000 crore 310 km Atal Progress Way in the Chambal region, which was already announced earlier this year.
It also promises cash aid of Rs 4,000 to farmers, in addition to the Rs 6,000 they get annually under the central government’s PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme. This initiative was launched last month.
The manifestos are silent on whether the party intends to continue the crop loan waiver scheme announced by the Kamal Nath government, which fell in March this year. It was the Congress’ campaign promise of waiving crop loans of up to Rs 2 lakh that is believed to have been one of the main reasons for the Congress unseating the BJP in 2018 after over 15 years.
The Nath government’s alleged failure to immediately implement the campaign promise was among the reasons Jyotiraditya Scindia cited when he quit the Congress for the BJP this March.
The Congress claims nearly 27 lakh farmers benefited from the crop loan waiver during its 15-month rule from December 2018 to March 2020. The Congress manifesto for the bypolls promises to cover the remaining eligible farmers under the ambitious scheme.
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‘Pack of lies’
Hours after the BJP released its manifesto for Bihar on 22 October, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had announced that Madhya Pradesh, too, will provide free vaccine to the poor “who can’t afford it”. However, the manifesto makes no such distinction, promising the vaccine to all. On Tuesday, Madhya Pradesh reported 514 new Covid-19 cases, lowest in the last three-and-a-half months.
The Congress called the BJP manifestos a “pack of lies”, and accused the BJP of playing politics over vaccine. “Every Indian is entitled to get vaccine, but, by including it in an election manifesto, the BJP has given an example of dirty politics,” said Nath’s media coordinator Narendra Saluja.
Saluja also noted that the manifestos make no mention of farm loan waiver, despite Scindia citing it as among the reasons when he mounted a rebellion against the Congress.
The Congress also took a dig at the BJP for including Scindia’s photograph in the ninth place, after national and state BJP leaders. “The BJP used to claim that the Congress won most seats in Gwalior-Chambal region (in 2018 assembly elections) because of Scindia but now does not find him important enough to accommodate him on the manifesto cover,’’ he said.
Asked about Scindia not featuring prominently on campaign material, state BJP president V.D. Sharma said the BJP “follows a system where the chief minister and the state party president feature before others”. Scindia, he added, was part of decision-making machinery.
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