IMPORTANT JARGON

The phase-wise voting in India for general elections began on 19th April.

BJP MANIFESTO VS INC MANIFESTO

Voting will be held in six more phases across the country over the next few weeks before the votes are counted on 4th June. In the run-up to the general elections, it becomes important to analyze the manifestos of India's two largest political parties, which are in the pursuit of political power.

Q. What Information Is Available About The 2024 General Election?

Elections are held for 543 seats for India's lower house of parliament (called the Lok Sabha), every five years. A political party or a coalition requires a simple majority of 272 seats in the elections to rule the country. India's two largest political parties are the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Indian National Congress.

These parties lead their respective coalitions of other political parties and are called the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A), respectively.

In the previous elections held in 2019, the BJP won 303 seats (with the NDA at 353), while the INC won 52 seats. In the 2024 General Elections, there are a total of 968 million registered voters.

Q. What Does The Term Manifesto Mean, And Why Is It Important?

A manifesto is nothing but a public declaration of the potential policies and aims of a political party. It is not exhaustive, nor is it legally binding on the political party to fulfill its promises mentioned in the manifesto.

Any political party follows an ideology, encompassing economic as well as other aspects like social, political and cultural.

Manifestos are widely followed as they give a hint of the policy choices and reform narrative that the political party sets for the economy for the near and medium term.