Gujarat Elections 2022: BJP releases manifesto, promises 1 lakh jobs for women, hospitals, world class sports infra

Gujarat elections: Five days before the crucial first phase of Gujarat elections, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday released its ‘Sankalp Patra’ or manifesto in Gandhinagar. Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel, BJP national president JP Nadda and state party president CR Patil were present at the party's manifesto launch. The Gujarat elections will be held in two phases on December 1 and December 5. The counting will be done on December 8.  

In its manifesto, the ruling party has promised to create 20 lakh jobs for youth in its five-year tenure, especially 1 lakh jobs for women in the state. Besides, it promised to implement Uniform Civil Code, anti-radicalisation cell, and Recovery of Damages of Public and Private Properties Act. 

Gujarat, which is the home state of PM Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, is currently a political battlefield as the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are also contesting in the state.  

Speaking at the launch of manifesto, BJP chief Nadda said Gujarat is the land of change makers and gave reference of PM Modi and his remarkable journey, which he started from Gujarat.  

“For the progress of Gujarat, we will make Gujarat's economy equal to that of a 1 trillion economy by making the state a foreign direct investment destination. We will create an anti-radicalisation cell to identify and eliminate potential threats, and sleeper cells of the terrorist organizations and anti-India forces," the BJP chief said on Saturday. 

Besides these, some important promises in the manifesto are:  

• Convert 20,000 government schools into Schools of Excellence with a budget of Rs 10,000 crore in the next 5 years. 
• Ensure that every citizen in Gujarat has a pucca house and ensure 100% implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. 
• Launch a Family Card Yojana, which will enable every family to avail benefits of all State Government-run welfare schemes. 
• Establish 4 Gujarat Institute of Technology (GIT) on the lines of IITs as Centres of Excellence in the areas of Green Energy, Semiconductors, fintech, and Aerospace. 
• Investments of Rs 10,000 crore under Gujarat Krishi Infrastructure Kosh to develop a holistic system of Khedut Mandis, modern APMCs, sorting and grading units, cold chains, warehouses, primary processing centres, etc. 
• Invest Rs 1,000 crore to renovate, expand and promote temples, following the successful transformation model of Somnath, Ambaji and Pavagadh. 
• Double the annual cap under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (Ayushman Bharat) from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh per family and ensure free-of-cost medical treatment. 
• Launch the Mukhyamantri Free Diagnostic Scheme with a corpus of Rs 110 crore to provide free-of-cost diagnostic services in all government health institutions and empanelled laboratories for EWS households. 
• Launch Gujarat Olympics Mission and create world-class sports infrastructure with an aim to host the Olympic Games in 2036. 
• Construct a Birsa Munda Adi Jati Samriddhi Corridor between Ambaji and Umergram to spur growth by connecting every tribal district’s headquarters with a 4-6 lane state highway, and by constructing a tribal cultural circuit to connect Pal Dadhvaav and the Statue of Unity to Shabari Dham. 
• Ensure state-of-the-art healthcare facilities in tribal areas by setting up 8 medical colleges, and 10 nursing/para-medical colleges.