Modi promises jobs, infrastructure if BJP wins polls

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promised yesterday to create jobs, boost infrastructure and expand welfare programmes if it wins a third term, seeking to address key voter concerns ahead of this week’s elections.

The general election, which begins on April 19, will be held in seven stages until June 1.

Votes are due to be counted on June 4 and results expected the same day.

Modi, 73, is widely tipped to win a record-equalling third term on the back of his 10year record, which includes strong economic growth, infrastructure projects, welfare handouts and aggressive nationalism.

Surveys, however, suggest unemployment, inflation and rural distress remain issues of concern in the world’s most populous country despite its strong economy, and addressing these will be Modi’s biggest challenge.

“Our focus is on dignity of life, on quality of life, our focus is also on creating jobs through investment,” he said after releasing the manifesto, titled Modi’s Guarantee, at the party headquarters in the capital.

Modi said the manifesto is focused on creating jobs in sectors such as infrastructure, aviation, railways, electric vehicles, green energy, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, among others, in a bid to address discontent at unemployment levels that are rising despite strong economic growth.

“India’s youth will not have even imagined the number of opportunities that will come their way,” he told cheering BJP members.

Congress, the main opposition party, which has been struggling to revive its fortunes, said it was not impressed by a manifesto that is filled with “empty promises”.

“People want to ask what happened in the last 10 years,” Congress lawmaker Manish Tewari said.

“Unemployment is rampant and inflation has broken the back of common people. The people of the country will hold him (Modi) to account for what’s happened in the last 10 years.”

Modi also vowed to expand welfare programmes, including bringing all Indians above the age of 70 under an existing free health insurance programme and pushing piped cooking gas connections to all houses to follow up on a subsidised cooking gas cylinder programme launched in 2016. – Reuters