Bengaluru: You thought Karnataka is going to see a blitz of Modi and Yogi rallies next week? Well, before that you are going to see a blitz of manifestoes.
The Congress gears up to be first with its manifesto that will be launched by their national president Rahul Gandhi in Mangalore – the communally polarised region that the BJP has hailed as its votebank.
This would be the Congress’ manifesto for the state, but the next day, on the 28h – the Congress plans to have region-wise manifestoes that will be launched in Bengaluru, Belgaum, Gulbarga and Mysore. The honours will be done by Sam Pitroda, Prithviraj Chauhan and Mallikarjun Kharge for the region-wise manifestoes.
Since the Congress claims that its biggest achievement is having delivered on almost all of its 165 election promises outlined in the manifesto in 2013, this election’s manifesto could be an interesting one too. Veteran leader Veerappa Moily heads the manifesto committee and a separate vision for Bengaluru city will be a part of this.
“There is a separate big chapter on Bengaluru, but in other sectors also, we are proposing transformative changes – for development, social justice, agriculture,” Moily told News18.
Congress leaders say they have interacted with NGOs, industrial bodies, trade unions and town planners before they came up with their plans, while for the rural areas, their focus would be on modernisation of agriculture and horticulture, how to make farming more attractive as a profession.
But hold your breath. From the BJP, there will be not one or four, but 225 manifestoes. While there is one overall Karnataka manifesto, foot-soldiers of the BJP have been working on putting together promises to be made for each of the 224 Assembly segments.
“There is an overall Karnataka manifesto, we will released that in the next three-four days. This also includes one chapter dedicated to Bengaluru’s development. MLA Dr Ashwathnarayan is tasked with putting together a manifesto for every Assembly segment,” says BJP spokesperson Vaman Acharya.
According to BJP sources, this has meant seeking the opinions of 500 influencers in each Assembly segment and coming up with a list of promises.
“We have taken opinions of nearly 3 lakh people offline and online, and we have a vision document for every Assembly segment that will then be given to the candidate as his mandate to be fulfilled after the election. These will be released at the district level, by district level leaders after the State manifesto is released,” says Dr Ashwathnarayan.
The JDS on its part also plans to come out with a manifesto within the next week, where it has roped in a retired IAS officer Dr Subramanya to work on this. This too will look at sector-wise promises – what the party wants to do for agriculture, industry, water resources and infrastructure.
Interestingly, the preparation for manifestoes by each party has been preceded by nearly a month of leg-work - unlike in the Gujarat elections six months ago when parties had released manifestoes almost as an after-thought, where the focus had been on speeches.
In the coming days there will be promises galore.
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