Image copyright Getty Images

India has entered full election mode: voting is due to begin on 11 April, with the final ballot cast more than five weeks later on 19 May. Every day, the BBC will be bringing you all the latest updates on the twists and turns of the world's largest democracy.

The BJP releases election manifesto

What is happening?

The governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has released its election manifesto, which promises a slew of welfare schemes to India's farmers - a key vote bank in a country where nearly half the population is engaged in agriculture.

A farmers' income scheme that targeted only small farmers (those who owned up to two hectares of land) has now been expanded to all farmers in the country - they will each now receive 6,000 rupees ($86; £66) yearly.

Small farmers and traders will also now receive a pension from the government; and the party has renewed its earlier promise of doubling farmers' incomes by 2022.

National security is a major part of the manifesto - India's home minister Rajnath Singh repeatedly referred to India's "zero tolerance against terror" while speaking after the manifesto was released.

The document includes other welfare measures, from permanent housing for the poor to piped water in every household to water management and recycling.

Why does this matter?

It isn't surprising that the BJP manifesto targets farmers because Indian agriculture, blighted by a depleting water table and declining productivity, is in crisis. And protests by farmers have regularly made headlines in the past five years.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Like the Congress, the BJP has also promised to reserve 33% of seats in the parliament and state legislatures for women. Both parties had committed to this ahead of past elections as well.

Some have said the manifesto makes no major promises or announcements that will be hard to deliver.

The BJP's manifesto also underlines some of the party's core pledges, which are popular with its right-wing supporters. These include cancelling the "special status" granted to Kashmir by the Constitution; and building a Hindu temple at a disputed site where a mosque once stood but was demolished by Hindu mobs in the early 1990s.

Ask a question

What happened last week?

You can read a full recap of everything that happened here.

But here are the highlights:

• The week kicked off with Congress' announcement that its president, Rahul Gandhi, would contest the election from two seats - his family stronghold of Amethi in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and Wayanad in the southern state of Kerala. The party said this was a message to voters in the south that they are "deeply valued and respected". But Mr Gandhi's opponents wondered if he is unsure of winning Amethi where his margin of victory in 2014 was seen as too narrow.
• The spectre of fake news dominated the week after Facebook said on Monday that it had removed more than 600 pages linked to Congress; many pro-BJP pages were also removed, according to reports, although this was not mentioned explicitly. Later in the week WhatsApp, along with a local start-up, launched a service to verify reports sent in by users and to study the scale of fake news on the app.
• On Tuesday, Congress released its election manifesto, where it gave more details on its most ambitious welfare proposal - a basic income scheme that promises 72,000 rupees ($1050) yearly to India's poorest households. It also promised to review the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Acts (AFSPA), which allows troops to shoot to kill suspected militants or arrest them without a warrant.
• In other news, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath landed in trouble for referring to India's army as "Narendra Modi's army". He was roundly criticised by opposition leaders; even the candidate he had been campaigning for - retired Indian army chief and minister General VK Singh - disapproved of his remark.
• The week ended with BJP veteran LK Advani taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He wrote in his blog that the BJP had never regarded those who disagreed with them as "enemies" or as "anti-national" - a term Mr Modi has often used to describe political adversaries.

Coverage from previous weeks: