Gujarat BJP manifesto targets neo-middle class
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Monday released the BJP’s manifesto for the upcoming Assembly elections saying that it is a blueprint for development that he vowed to continue if voted to power for the third consecutive term.
The party manifesto’s prime concentration is on rural and farmers issues. It has defined a new category of the “neo-middle class’’, which, Modi has said has grown above the poverty line but still has not come in the category of middle class.
Addressing reporters, Modi said: “Due to development in Gujarat in the last ten years, there has been substantial rise in this neo-middle class. We want to address their issues.’’
Seemingly to counter the Congress’s poll promise of providing clothes and houses at an affordable rate to rural and urban poor respectively, the BJP manifesto envisaged construction of 50 lakh new houses in the next five years. He said that in the last manifesto the BJP had promised 20 lakh houses for the poor and created 22 lakh.
The Congress also had promised low-cost housing which gained huge response from the people and thousands had queued up in urban and rural areas to get the forms distributed by the party.
However, when asked if his manifesto promise of making 50 lakh houses was in reply to the opposition party’s scheme, Modi said many parties like the Lok Janshakti Party and JD(U) have also released their manifesto.
