A relook at BJP’s promises in its manifesto as it wins Delhi Assembly elections
The Hindu
BJP wins Delhi elections with promises of freebies, focusing on women, students, healthcare, jobs, and infrastructure development.
Story so far: Storming to power after 26 years, BJP has managed to wrest away the national capital from Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday (February 8, 2025). Without naming a CM pick, BJP fielded sons of two ex-CMs – Parvesh Singh Sahib Verma and Harish Khurana, both of whom have triumphed. Mr. Verma has catapulted as top CM pick after defeating ex-CM Arvind Kejriwal by 4089 votes for the New Delhi seat.
Ahead of the polls, BJP unveiled its manifesto titled ‘Viksit Delhi Sankalp Patra’ in three parts. Wooing voters, the BJP made promises to women, students, educated youth, farmers, elderly, priests and service workers like auto-rickshaw drivers, washermen, and anganwadi workers. Areas of focus in its manifesto included agriculture, transport, pollution, jobs, healthcare, education and utilities like power, water and waste treatment. Taking a 180-degree turn, the BJP had announced a plethora of freebies to targetted group of people.
A re-look at its promises
Women
BJP has promised ₹2500 per month to women from poor families, a grant of ₹21,000 and six nutritional kits to every pregnant woman, gas cylinders at ₹500 and one free on Holi and Deepawali. It will also build 250 ‘pink’ toilets which will have vending machines for sanitary napkins and feeding rooms. Other promises include a women-only police battalion and paid maternity leave for up to six months for all domestic workers.
Students, education and jobs
For students, BJP has promised a one-time financial assistance of ₹15,000 for competitive exams, free kindergarten (KG) to post-graduation (PG) education to poor students and implementation of the New Education Policy 2020 in Delhi. For Scheduled Caste (SC) students, BJP announced the Ambedkar Stipend Scheme under which every student will receive a monthly stipend of ₹1000, free laptops will be given to meritorious students of Class 12 and 50% concession on fees of professional courses. It has also promised 50,000 government jobs.
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