Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday released the BJP’s manifesto for the Bihar assembly polls which seeks to reach out

Patna: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday released the BJP’s manifesto for the Bihar assembly polls which seeks to reach out to the youth with the promise of 19 lakh jobs in the next five years and farmers with the assurance of bringing lentils under the MSP regime.

Carrying the tagline ‘BJP hai to bharosa hai’, the party drew heavily upon the trust enjoyed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi among the masses by virtue of pro-people measures like the Jan Dhan scheme and the Ujjwala Yojana.

Nirmala Sitharaman

Bihar is a politically sensitive state. Here people cannot be fobbed off with empty promises. Claims made by parties are likely to be weighed against their past track record. This is where the BJP scores, Sitharaman said.

We have the confidence that we can deliver on our promises. In the last six years, all the programmes announced by the prime minister have been implemented, be it electrification of villages, gas cylinders for poor women or financial inclusion of all citizens by getting accounts opened in their name in banks, she asserted.

The party promises free of cost vaccination for the coronavirus and recruitment of three lakh teachers in primary, secondary and higher educational institutions.

Nirmala Sitharaman

The party also proposed to develop the state, which has so far remained largely untouched by the boom in information technology, into an IT hub holding out the promise of five lakh jobs in the sector.

Other attractive promises include self-reliance for one crore women through micro finance, pucca houses for 30 lakh people, and a boost to fisheries making Bihar number one in the sector.

Yet another promise made in the manifesto which is likely to find resonance among students is introducing Hindi as a medium of instruction for medical, engineering and other technical courses.