News Analysis India

Tag: Congress vs BJP

  • Lok Sabha Election 2024: What BJP And Congress Manifestos Promise For Women And Farmers |

    New Delhi: As voting for the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 is getting nearer, both the leading political parties – Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – have introduced their manifestos outlining their visions and commitments for the next five years. While Congress has termed its manifesto ‘Nyay Patra’, the BJP titles it ‘Sankalp Patra’ riding in the ‘Modi Ki Guaranteee’ slogan.

    Both the BJP and the Congress have delineated their primary commitments and priorities for Women and Farmer – two sections that constitute more than half of India’s population. Now let’s analyse and compare the pledges outlined by each party in their respective manifestos.

    Promises For Farmers

    We always heard the term ‘India is an agrarian nation’ and still most of the population emerged from the agriculture sector and plays a crucial role in vote banking. Similar to previous manifestos, both political parties have made commitments to farmers, a crucial vote bank.

    Congress- The party pledges to give a legal guarantee to the Minimum Support Price (MSP) announced annually by the government. They also promise to appoint a Permanent Commission on Agricultural Finance to regularly assess agriculture credit and recommend measures for loan relief when needed.

    On the other hand, the BJP promised to continue to increase MSP from time to time and pledged to strengthen the PM Fasal Bima Yojana by integrating advanced technologies, ensuring swift and precise assessment, expedited payouts, and prompt resolution of grievances 

    Promises For Women

    Women play a key role in shaping the vote bank of any political party. 

    The Grand Old Party, Congress promised to launch a Mahalakshmi scheme which provides one lakh per year to every poor Indian family, The manifesto also said that the party has decided to reserve one-half (50 per cent) of central government jobs for women starting in 2025 if they come in power. Congress also promised to double the number of working women hostels in the country.

    While, BJP ‘Sankalp Patra’ aims to expand the current healthcare services with a focus on preventing and reducing anaemia, breast cancer, cervical cancer, and osteoporosis, thereby ensuring women lead healthier lives. Manifesto also mentioned launching a targeted campaign to eradicate cervical cancer. The party also promised to implement the Women’s Reservation Bill, guaranteeing representation for women in both the Parliament and State Legislatures.

  • Manipur polls: Can Congress upset BJP applecart?

    Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: The Congress is dreaming big about the upcoming Manipur elections but it, surely, will have a mountain to climb to upset the BJP applecart.

    The party is going to polls against the backdrop of a series of defections by its MLAs to the BJP which heads the ruling coalition.

    The PA Sangma-founded National People’s Party (NPP) and the Naga People’s Front (NPF) – a party from Nagaland that has spread its wings to Manipur – are the two other components of the coalition.

    Over the past five years or so, 13 Congress MLAs deserted the party to wear saffron. Switchover by MLAs to the ruling party has been a growing trend in the Northeast where people vote more in favour of individuals than political parties.

    The Congress is also plagued by the absence of vibrant and energetic young leaders. A couple of them that it had are now with the BJP. As such, the seasoned and battle-hardened Okram Ibobi Singh (73) continues to be the party’s Manipur face.

    Only time will tell whether the Congress will be able to give the BJP a run for its money but the general perception is that it will emerge as the second-largest party after the BJP.

    Pradip Phanjoubam, who is the Editor of Imphal Review of Arts and Politics, felt the BJP will have an edge over the Congress.

    “The Congress is campaigning hard but the ruling party, usually, has an edge over others everywhere. I feel the Congress is slightly down,” Phanjoubam told The New Indian Express on Tuesday.

    He thought the Congress would still be able to put up a fight.

    “The Congress has been in power several terms in Manipur. It has some veterans, a lot of who can win. The only thing is that some of them have defected. However, despite the setbacks, it will still be a force to reckon with,” he added.

    Manipur Congress spokesman K Debabrata said the growing popularity of the NPP and the NPF would hurt the BJP more than the Congress.

    “The NPF and the NPP have grown up since. They are likely to bag 10 seats each by cutting into the BJP votes. They will also cause a split of the Congress votes but it will be less,” Debabrata said.

    He claimed the NPP was falling out with Chief Minister N Biren Singh and had already declared that it would not align with the BJP. “There could be a post-poll scenario where the Congress will form the government along with the NPP and the NPF,” he said, adding, “The BJP will get less than 20 seats”.

    In June last year, all four NPP legislators in the state had quit the ministry until returning to the government a few days later following the intervention of BJP stalwart and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

    “We are aiming at getting majority by becoming the single largest party, again,” the Congress spokesman said.

    He admitted there was none more popular than Ibobi in the Congress.

    “We leave the issue of our CM face to the future. Whosoever will command a bigger number of MLAs may become the CM. Our coalition partners may also ask for the CM post,” he said.

    Any party that cannot get along with the BJP will be the Congress’ partner. The Congress is not going for the pre-poll alliance, he added.

    In the 2017 polls, the Congress had won 28 seats as against the BJP’s 21 in the 60-member House but the latter managed to cobble up the numbers to form the government.