The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday, April 14, released its manifesto or ‘Sankalp Patra’, with the tagline “Modi ki Guarantee”, for the Lok Sabha election 2024 in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president JP Nadda and other senior leaders at the party headquarters.

The day coincides with the birth anniversary of BR Ambedkar, a towering leader from the Dalit community and an architect of the Indian Constitution.

The BJP had appointed a 27-member manifesto committee headed by defence minister Rajnath Singh that met twice to deliberate on its contents after the party had launched multiple exercises, including vans sent across the country and social media campaigns, to seek people’s suggestions.

“Work has been done to connect 60,000 new villages with pucca roads and all-weather roads have been built. We had never imagined that villages would be empowered, or optical fibre would reach villages, too. But today, I am happy that under your leadership, 1.2 lakh panchayats have been connected with optical fibre and they have also been connected with internet facilities… 25 crore people of India’s population have now risen above the poverty line. According to the International Monetary Fund, extreme poverty in India has now reduced to less than 1 per cent…,” JP Nadda said on the occasion.

Speaking on the newly inaugurated Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, Nadda said, “…We also saw those days when Congress lawyers used to stand up and try to stop the judicial process and say that it will benefit the BJP. They were not concerned about the country, Ram Lalla. They did vote bank politics and kept creating obstacles but under the leadership of PM Modi, a grand Ram temple was built…”

At the release of the BJP’s manifesto, Modi met a few beneficiaries of the central government schemes and handed a copy of the manifesto.

Among the beneficiaries were Raghuvir who sells snacks in Delhi’s Gandhi Nagar and has benefited from a loan provided under the PM Svanidhi Yojna. The other beneficiaries were Ramvir from Jhajjar, Haryana, who has received benefits under the PM kisan Yojna that give small and marginal farmers an annual cash incentive of ₹6,000 and Lilawati from Bastar who has benefited from schemes such as the Ujwala Yojna that offers subsidy in cooking gas and Har ghar Jal, that provides potable water connections.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.