The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday launched its manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections promising to hold simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies – “One nation, one election” – and the implementation of a uniform civil code across India.
The saffron party has been pushing for simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha and the state Assemblies on grounds that repeated elections are expensive and a burden for governments, businesses, workers, courts, political parties, candidates and civil society.
The uniform civil code, an ideological plank of the ruling BJP, is a proposed common set of laws governing marriage, divorce, succession and adoption for all citizens. Currently, such personal affairs of different religious and tribal groups – except in Uttarakhand and Goa – are based on community-specific laws, largely derived from religious scripture.
“We will create the necessary infrastructure and ecosystem for strengthening good governance, digital governance and data governance in the country,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the launch of the manifesto.
The BJP’s election manifesto makes 14 broad promises largely focused on the concerns of India’s youth, women, poor and farmers.
The ruling party also said it has decided to bring senior citizens and the transgender community under the ambit of Ayushman Bharat Yojana, a cashless insurance scheme for the poor that offers up to Rs 5 lakh for medical treatments.
Modi claimed that his party has fulfilled all its promises made in its previous election manifestos.
“In the last ten years, around 25 crore people of Bharat have moved out of multidimensional poverty,” he said. “This stands as a testament to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s strong commitment to a result-oriented approach to work.”
The manifesto also promised to extend the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana free ration scheme for another five years. The ruling party has promised to create jobs by turning India into a “start-up hub”.
The BJP had appointed a committee headed by defence minister Rajnath Singh to draft the manifesto, officially being referred to as the party’s “Sankalp Patra [resolution letter]”.
Also read: In our series A Decade Under Modi, Scroll reporters take stock of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government’s performance over two successive terms in power.
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