The first draft of Congress party’s manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections would be released by February 15 and the final one would be out before the announcement of polls, party MP Shashi Tharoor said on Saturday (January 27). He also expressed hope that the opposition bloc INDIA might choose elements from the manifestos of parties in the alliance and come up with one having a list of the core issues.
"We have our internal procedures. The first draft should be ready by February 15 but thereafter it has to be agreed upon and adopted by our working committee. But certainly, by the time the Election Commission announces the elections, our manifesto will be ready and out," he said.
Tharoor is a member of the committee to prepare the party manifesto.
The Congress leader said that each party will prepare its own manifesto and the I.N.D.I.A bloc may choose common elements in the final draft.
"I think each party is going to be working on its own manifesto...It is entirely possible that the INDIA alliance will choose elements from all the manifestos in common and come up with a core list of issues," he said.
What would the manifesto cover?
According to Tharoor, the manifestos will focus on the issues of unemployment, price rise, the need for income support for the poor, women's rights, youths and farmers.
The objective of Saturday's interactive session was to gather impartial, spontaneous, and value-added views from different segments of the society on issues that they felt to be addressed by a union government, a Congress leader said.
Tharoor heard stakeholders from the Industry, Economy, Healthcare, Banking, Education, Information Technology, Human Resources, Literature, Cultural, Legal and Diversity segments.
(With PTI inputs)
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