BJP woos women voters in its manifesto for Odisha

Bhubaneswar: From death penalty to rapists of minor girls to free two-wheelers and cash incentives for girl students, the BJP made a slew of promises in its manifesto for Odisha as it tries to get women voters on its side, considered a major votebank of the Naveen Patnaik government.
The manifesto, released by BJP president Amit Shah on Sunday, promises to bring a law that hands down capital punishment to rapists of girls up to 15 years of age if the party is voted to power. The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018, has death penalty provisions for rapists if the girl is up to 12 years age. With the manifesto, the BJP hopes to tap on the public outrage over the rape of minors in Pipili and Kunduli in recent years.

“If BJP is voted to power, the first bill we will pass will be capital punishment for rapists of minors up to 15 years of age,” Union minister and senior BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan said.

In a bid to woo the educated and first-time women voters, the manifesto, termed Nua Odisha Sankalp Patra (promises for a new Odisha), promises free gearless scooters to meritorious girls who have cleared Plus II and cash incentives of Rs 10,000, Rs 15,000 and Rs 10,000 to each girl upon enrolment to Class X, Class XII and graduate courses, respectively, and Rs 15,000 on completion of graduation.

Trying to lure the 70-lakh strong members of women self-help groups (SHG)s, considered the core votebank of Naveen-led BJD, the BJP manifesto promises smartphones to all the members with 2GB monthly data, one-time loan waiver and ‘Maa Tara Tarini’ stores in all 314 blocks to market SHG products. The Naveen government has given one phone per SHG, costing Rs 3000. The BJP has also promised Ujjwala Sanitary Vending Machines in every village, with each pad costing as low as Re 1.

To appease farmers facing farm distress, the BJP has promised mobile paddy procurement vans at their doorsteps. It also promises interest-free crop loan to small, marginal farmers and sharecroppers, grain storage warehouses and cold chains in every cluster of gram panchayats. The party has also promised iodised salt at Re 1/kg along with the existing scheme of rice at Re 1/kg.

The manifesto also talks of providing job or self-employment opportunity to at least one member of each household. It promises a Rs 1000 crore Dharmapad Start-up Fund to support innovative business ideas, 30 mega youth hostels with accommodation facility for 1000 each and 10 residential coaching institutes to help poor students prepare for competitive examinations. The party says it will implement the 10% quota for economically weaker sections in state government jobs as soon as it comes to power.

If voted, the BJP also promised to start a ‘Pujari Bandhu Yojana’ to provide financial assistance of Rs 1000 to priests, including tribal priests, of various temples.

In healthcare, the saffron party plans to set up one medical college in each district, besides five superspecialty medi-cities across the state. For quality education, the party has promised a Central University of Agriculture in Kalahandi-Balangir-Koraput (KBK) region, Buxi Jagabandhu public libraries in every gram panchayat and a BEd college in every district.

For better infrastructure, the BJP said it would spend Rs 1 lakh crore in five years under a scheme ‘GRAM’ for rural areas and conduct feasibility studies for Metro rail project connecting Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.

It promised a tall statue of Buxi Jagabandhu at Khurda besides museum and memorial to Paika Bidroha and also said that it would appoint a special investigation team to probe into the chit fund scam and ensure the return of money to small depositors on a priority basis.

Reacting to the BJP manifesto, BJD spokesperson Sasmit Patra termed it as “a document full of lies and false promises”. In return, the BJD also raised 15 questions related to the BJP’s 2014 manifesto, which the former claimed the saffron party is yet to answer. “Why is the promise of special category status for Odisha, which was present in the 2014 manifesto, missing from the BJP’s 2019 manifesto? Does it not want Odisha to have special category status? For how long the BJP wants to fool the people of Odisha? The people of Odisha have seen through this and would give a befitting reply to the BJP in the 2019 elections,” Patra said. The BJD also dubbed the Congress manifesto, also released on Sunday, as false promises made to lure voters.

EoM