In October 2018, the Indian National Congress (INC) announced a website dedicated toward asking for suggestions about what to include in its manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
In an effort to improve the Party’s attempts at connecting directly with the voters, this website was a part of the INC’s plan for on ground consultations. Despite having announced the initiative a couple of months ago, the INC hasn’t given the country an entire manifesto.
While the INC did not make its manifesto public yet, rumours are, it will include benefits for the entire Country. The Party is aiming to increase the number of jobs both in the public and private sectors. From offering a Right to Healthcare Bill, to reaching out to women voters and to offering a minimum income guarantee to people irrespective of their backgrounds, the Opposition is working on a five year plan.
Apart from increasing the number of jobs, the INC is also looking at areas like the textile industry and leather industry as areas for development. While these industries have been ignored in the last few years, reports from 2011/12 state, they accounted for the generation of 20.9 million jobs!
A senior member of the INC, while discussing about the manifesto, said, “Our road map will indicate policies to promote private sector jobs and if we come to power, we also want to create in the first year itself a few lakhs of jobs in the public employment to show how the NDA government failed to create jobs.”
The INC has put together a 19 member team made of P. Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh, Rajeev Gowda, Kumari Selja, Sam Pitroda and Shashi Tharoor. The Committee has held meetings with 50 independent experts and 120 public consultations. Every part of the INC’s manifesto is aimed at being one step ahead of the BJP’s manifesto.
With BJP and INC being the main competitors for this election, it is going to be interesting to see who wins. Starting from the 11th of April, the elections are going to be held in 7 phases and will end on the 19th of May.
The results of the Lok Sabha elections will be declared on the 23rd of May!
Stay tuned for further updates.
