Asserting that India is ‘fervently demanding change’, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ‘guarantees’ highlighted in the BJP's election campaign will meet the same fate as the party's ‘India Shining’ slogan before the 2004 general elections.
At a meeting of the Congress Working Committee to finalise the party’s manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Kharge said, 'The country is fervently demanding a change. The guarantees currently being touted by the present government would have the same fate as that of the 'India Shining' slogan of 2004,’. He said the BJP government under Vajpayee had headed into the 2004 Lok Sabha election with a high-voltage ‘India Shining’ campaign but it could not form a government and a coalition led by the Congress assumed power.
Kharge also urged all party leaders and workers to take every issue raised in the party manifesto to every village and town and to every household across the country. Congress president stressed whatever has been promised in the manifesto, will be strictly implemented. Before making promises in the manifesto, an in-depth deliberation has been made to ensure that these promises are implementable, he added.
Mallikarjun Kharge also referred to Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, saying through it the Congress was able to draw the country's attention to the real issue of people. The party is fighting the elections on the issue of 'five nyay' (justices) -- 'Bhagidari Nyay', 'Kisan Nyay', 'Nari Nyay', 'Shramik Nyay' and 'Yuva Nyay' -- giving 25 guarantees, five for each nyay, which have been announced by the Congress president and Rahul Gandhi.
Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and other party leaders attended the meeting. P Chidambaram chairs the manifesto committee of the party, which has already presented a copy of the draft document to the CWC for its nod. The party's Central Election Committee (CEC), chaired by Kharge, would discuss and finalise its candidates for remaining seats in the evening. The Congress has so far announced 82 candidates for the seven-phase LS polls starting on April 19.
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