Hours before the campaign for the first phase elections in Uttar Pradesh ended on Tuesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party released its election manifesto, the Lok Kalyan Sankalp Patra, and promised freebies like free electricity in the farm sector and a scooty for girl students while trying to keep the Hindutva voting bloc intact by promising to make anti-love jihad law stringent.
Among the BJP’s top promises are free power to farmers for irrigation and jobs to one crore people, including self-employment opportunities to at least one member of each family. It also promised 10-year jail and Rs 1 lakh penalty to those found guilty under the anti-love jihad law for luring women or girls to marriage for religious conversion. The party also promised to set up anti-corruption organisation units in all 18 divisions and anti-terrorist commando centres in Meerut, Rampur, Azamgarh, Kanpur Nagar and Bahraich in order to maintain law and order in the state.
“We have fulfilled almost 95 per cent of the promises we had made in the last election in 2017. We are committed to fulfilling the promises which we are making today,” Union Home Minister Amit Shah said while releasing the election manifesto at Indira Gandhi Pratishthan in Lucknow.
The 16-page Lok Kalyan Sankalp Patra promises to make Uttar Pradesh the number one economy in the country and jobs to one member of every family. It promises to double the per capita income, free power for irrigation, strengthening of minimum support price (MSP) for wheat and paddy and also announced that sugarcane dues will be cleared within 14 days.
Shah said the Sankalp Patra pays special attention to farmers, craftsmen, workers, women and the youth.
“The BJP manifesto promises two additional LPG cylinders to all beneficiaries of Ujjwala scheme on the occasion of Holi and Diwali, free scooty to every talented college-going girl. The grant under Kanya Sumangala Yojana has been increased from Rs 15, 000 to Rs. 25,000. Besides, the manifesto promises to provide two crore tablets or smartphones to students,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that the party’s manifesto sought to bring qualitative change to the 25 crore population of the state.
“In this government of double engine, every effort was made to give benefits to every farmer, poor and women without discrimination. Along with the manifesto, the BJP also launched a new election song named 'Kar ke dikhana hai',” he said.
Prioritising farmers’ welfare, the BJP’s Sankalp Patra says that it will continue its loan waiver scheme for farmers for the next five years.
The BJP said that it would set up the ‘Sardar Patel Agri-Infrastructure Mission’ with an investment of Rs 25,000 crore under which cutting and grading units, cold chain chambers, godowns, processing centres among others would be constructed.
The BJP manifesto also states that in the next five years, the Mukhyamantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana will be launched at a cost of Rs 5,000 crore. Emphasising on the sugarcane industry, the manifesto states that sugar mills will be modernised and upgraded under Sugarcane Mill Renewal Mission at a cost of Rs 5,000 crore.
The BJP has promised to create a fund of Rs 1,000 crore to ensure minimum support price to the farmers for all crops like potato, tomato and onion. Further, Rs 1,000 crore would be allotted under the Nand Baba Milk Mission to make the state a leader in milk production. At the same time, 4,000 new crop-specific FPOs (farmers producers organisations), six mega food parks will be set up across the state.
In honour of singing legend and Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar, the BJP announced to establish ‘Lata Mangeshkar Performing Arts Academy’ to carry forward her legacy which will inspire generations.
The Sankalp Patra, which emphasises the promotion of cultural heritage and tourism, can prove to be effective in highlighting and re-establishing UP’s tourism potential globally. The BJP has announced to set up ‘Lok Bhasha Academy’ in Awadh, Braj, Purvanchal and Bundelkhand, Film City, ‘Lata Mangeshkar Performing Arts Academy’, and establish a special board for elderly saints and priests.
Promising to escalate the reforms made during the Yogi Adityanath regime in the health sector, the has party announced to fulfill the target of setting up government medical colleges with state-of-the-art facilities in every district. It has been announced to set up six ‘Dhanwantri Mega Health Parks’ in the state with an investment of about Rs 30,000 crore, to enable the state to become self-reliant by expanding the production of medical facilities like health and surgical instruments and medicines on a large scale.
The BJP manifesto promises bus stops in every village panchayat and 100 per cent village connectivity in all village panchayats, one ITI in every block and a medical college in every district. It has also promised a metro rail in Kashi, Meerut, Gorakhpur, Prayagraj, Bareilly and Jhansi. It has also proposed to set up ‘Ramayan University’ in Ayodhya.