Opposition parties on Sunday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) manifesto with the leaders dubbing it as ‘jumla patra’ full of rhetoric.

The opposition leaders called the guarantees promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as ‘none less than jumlas’ and accused the saffron camp of not fulfilling its promises even after being in power for a decade.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the prime minister “could not do anything for the poor in the last 10 years”. He added that the BJP hasn’t fulfilled promises made on the issue of jobs, doubling of farmers’ incomes and tackling price rise and inflation, and alleged that the prime minister was now shifting the goalposts by talking about 2047 instead.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said inflation and unemployment were “missing” from BJP’s manifesto. “The BJP does not even want to discuss the most important issues related to people’s lives. INDIA’s plan is very clear – recruitment for 30 lakh posts and a permanent job of ₹1 lakh to every educated youth,” he said in a post on X.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the BJP’s manifesto was a “sham” and alleged that their real manifesto was ‘Samvidhaan Badlo Patra’ (change Constitution manifesto).

“Remember, BJP starts all these conspiracies against the country, society and democracy from the bottom. In the beginning, the top leaders will take oath on the Constitution in front of the people, but at night they write a script to destroy the Constitution. Later, after gaining complete power, they will attack the Constitution,” she claimed.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also slammed the BJP manifesto with Atishi saying that the BJP promised to give two crore jobs every year but the country’s unemployment figure is the highest in the history of this country at present.

“Today the BJP has given the ‘Jumla Patra’ to the entire country. Even after running the government for 10 years, they were not able to fulfil even one of their promises. They had promised the youth that 2 crore jobs would be given every year but today the country’s unemployment figure is the highest in the history of this country. The amount spent on Ayushman Bharat in the entire country is less than the health budget of Delhi. The health budget in Delhi is ₹9000 crore, but only ₹8000 crore has been spent on Ayushman Bharat in the entire country,” she added.

Former Bihar deputy chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav also criticised the manifesto.

“There is no mention of the youth in the manifesto. 80 per cent are farmers but there is no mention of them. There is no discussion on how many jobs will be given, there is no discussion on employment. There is nothing to take forward the poor states like Bihar. There was neither any mention of a special package nor of giving special state status to Bihar… There was no mention of how to eliminate poverty or how to reduce inflation. Everyone knows what BJP people have said and done in the last 10 years,” he said.

The BJP released its manifesto on Sunday at its headquarters in New Delhi in the presence of PM Modi and other senior party leaders.

The BJP made several key promises, from the continuation of the free ration scheme for another five years to the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).

Elections 2024:

The elections for the 543 parliamentary constituencies will be held in seven phases, starting on April 19 and culminating on June 1. The counting of votes will be held on June 4. The phase 1 polling will be held on April 19, the second phase on April 26, third phase on May 7, fourth phase on May 13, 5th phase on May 20, 6th phase on May 25 and the last and the 7th phase on June 1.