Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (Express photo/file) Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (Express photo/file)

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has started preparing ground for the upcoming general elections, which is so far expected to be held in 2019, with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) seeking details from various ministries about which of the promises made in the party’s manifesto for 2014 polls have been fulfilled.

“All of us are giving a report to the Prime Minister. He has sought details from all ministers pertaining to promises fulfilled by their ministries from the manifesto,” a senior Cabinet minister said. According to government sources, earlier this task was assigned to a minister belonging to an ally of the National Democratic Alliance, but was later taken up by the Prime Minister’s Office.

Some of the key promises made by the BJP in its 2014 manifesto included those pertaining to addressing price rise, employment and entrepreneurship, corruption, black money among others. The manifesto had also noted that digital delivery of services would be a high-priority area for the party’s government. “It will be a high priority area for BJP that IT touches the lives of ordinary men and women. BJP has been known for good governance and eGovernance will become the backbone for good Governance. BJP aims to nurture a Digital India — making every household and every individual digitally empowered,” the party said in its manifesto.

Further, the political party had also promised high focus to job creation and opportunities to entrepreneurship by strategically developing domains like labour-intensive manufacturing such as textile, footwear, electronics assembly, etc and tourism. Apart from this, the poll promises included addressing the employability issue by initiating a multi-skills development programme.

To boost job and asset creation, and infrastructure the party had also promised opening up of sectors to foreign direct investment (FDI) with the exception of multi-brand retail trading. During its term so far, NDA government had liberalised FDI norms for various sectors including aviation, single-brand retail trading, construction development, defence, broadcasting, food products, pharmaceuticals, among others. The BJP poll manifesto also promised making the Foreign Investment Promotion Board’s functioning more efficient and investor friendly, however, the government abolished by the Board last year.

According to one of the source cited above, key government ministries have also been asked to submit reports on tangible results achieved by their departments, which would help in formulation of the BJP’s manifesto for the next general elections.

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