BJP manifesto likely by second fortnight of March: Munda

Jamshedpur: Former chief minister Arjun Munda on Wednesday said BJP’s manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections will be released in the second half of March after the completion of ‘Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat’. Munda, who is a member of the manifesto committee headed by home minister Rajnath Singh, said the party programme will conclude on March 9 and the manifesto will be released anytime after that.
Munda said: “BJP is the only party which has launched a nationwide programme to connect with the people on the ground to solicit their valuable suggestions on wide-ranging issues cutting across all sectors for incorporating them in the manifesto.” When informed that the elections could start by the fourth week of March, Munda said the manifesto will be released before that.

Iterating that people’s agenda for governance will reflect in BJP’s manifesto, Munda said the manifesto draft is being prepared on a two-way system. “Conventionally, political parties formulate a manifesto without directly interacting with the common people. But BJP is doing innovatively different this time around,” he said, claiming the manifesto will be based on “people’s demand”.

Munda who was in Jamshedpur on Wednesday to take part in the interactive session with traders and entrepreneurs, told reporters that the suggestions made by the business community will find space in the policy draft of the next government should BJP return to power in the Centre.

Responding to a query relating to the hostility between India and Pakistan, Munda said, “Successive governments overlooked terror incidents in the past, but the government led by Narendra Modi is working towards making India free from all sorts of problems, including terrorism.”