Today in Politics: PM Modi to unveil BJP ‘Sankalp Patra’ for 2024 LS polls; manifesto likely to focus on vikas, Hindutva

With barely five days left for the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections to get underway, the incumbent BJP is releasing its poll manifesto on Sunday morning, which is expected to showcase its plank of vikas (development), welfare and Hindutva besides a roadmap for “Viksit Bharat” (developed India).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president J P Nadda and other senior party leaders will attend the unveiling of the manifesto, “Sankalp Patra”, at the party headquarters in Delhi on a day marking the birth anniversary of B R Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution and a towering leader from the Dalit community.

As the BJP government has fulfilled several of its core ideological promises, including the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and the scrapping of Article 370, it will be closely tracked on how the party’s larger agenda of cultural nationalism figures in the manifesto.

The Uniform Civil Code (UCC) issue, which remains a work in progress for the BJP with the party pushing it in some of its states, may also feature in the manifesto.

The BJP’s pledges for youth, women, farmers and the poor — four “castes” in Modi’s formulation – are expected to be among the highlights of its poll document.

The BJP had appointed a 27-member Manifesto Committee headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh for drafting the document, which met twice to deliberate on its contents after the party had launched multiple exercises, including vans sent across the country and social media campaigns, to seek people’s suggestions.

With the census and delimitation exercise likely to be held on the watch of the next government, observers would keep an eye on whether the BJP will touch upon issues like concerns of southern states over the