Congress dubs BJP's Sankalp Patra as 'jhansa patra', says party should have released a 'maafinama'

The Congress has slammed the BJP’s Lok Sabha manifesto for upcoming Lok Sabha Elections. Addressing media in New Delhi on Monday, top Congress leaders including Ahmed Patel and Randeep Singh Surjewala said that the BJP’s manifesto was devoid of any concrete plan. Patel said that instead of manifesto, the BJP should have released a ‘maafinama’. Patel also shredded the BJP manifesto, figuratively. He said that people will not believe the ‘Sankalp Patra’. “The difference between BJP manifesto and Congress manifesto can be seen firstly from the cover page. Our's has a crowd of people, and BJP manifesto has face of just one man,” Patel added.

Surjewala said that what was missing from the BJP’s manifesto was any mention of jobs, notebandi (demonetisation), GST and black money. During the media presser, the Congress leaders later released document called '125 broken promises of BJP', listing the status of party's promises made in the 2014 election manifesto. The 'jumla' manifesto remains divisive in its approach through Ram temple and the contentious citizenship amendment bill, the Congress leaders said.

“For its 2019 manifesto, BJP has simply copy pasted its 2014 manifesto & changed all previous deadlines from 2019 to 2022,2032,2047,2097 Luckily they didn’t shift any deadlines to the next century,” Patel said on Twitter.

For its 2019 manifesto, BJP has simply copy pasted its 2014 manifesto & changed all previous deadlines from 2019 to 2022,2032,2047,2097

Luckily they didn’t shift any deadlines to the next century

— Ahmed Patel (@ahmedpatel) April 8, 2019

On April 2nd, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi had launched the party’s manifesto. The highlight of the manifesto was ambitious NYAY scheme. Gandhi had, in fact, called it a surgical strike on poverty. 

Earlier, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram had said his party will not put additional tax burden on the middle class while implementing the 'NYAY' scheme, if voted to power, under which it has promised to give Rs 72,000 each to five crore poorest families. The former finance minister also said it was a "promise" of the Congress not to increase the tax burden of the middle class.

"I have already said in press conference and various interviews: there will be no increase in the tax burden of the middle class. This is our promise," he said in a tweet. The Congress released its manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls, making a slew of promises, including giving Rs 72,000 each to five crore poor families under a scheme called Nyuntam Aay Yojana (NYAY), filling up 22 lakh government vacancies, bringing a separate budget for farmers and fixing a single moderate GST rate. The Congress manifesto committee was headed by Chidambaram.

(With agency inputs)