'Who stopped them from implementing UCC earlier?' asks Congress on BJP's manifesto

The Congress hit out at the ruling BJP on Sunday over its Himachal Pradesh poll manifesto, terming it a "cut-copy-paste" of their 2017 promises and in parts borrowed from the grand old party's 2022 election document.

BJP president J.P. Nadda on Sunday promised Uniform Civil Code (UCC), 33 per cent reservation for women in government jobs and educational institutions, and sops for different segments as he released the party's manifesto for the state polls.

A mix of Hindutva, development and welfare promises underpinned the 'Sankalp Patra', with Nadda also releasing a separate manifesto for women, a voting segment where measures like free grains, cooking gas connections and toilets have drawn favourable responses for the BJP in different polls.

The Congress' in-charge for Himachal Pradesh Rajiv Shukla and party leader Alka Lamba termed the BJP's manifesto a "cut-copy-paste" document.

"Their manifesto of 2022 is a bundle of lies. When they did not implement the previous one, will they do it now?" Shukla posed at a press conference here.

Shukla also said the BJP's manifesto has not uttered a word about the old pension scheme, restoring which has been a key demand of government employees.

"The old pension scheme was a big demand, but they are not doing anything about it. Our governments in Rajasthan and Chattisgarh have implemented it," he said.

On BJP promising implementation of a Uniform Civil Code in Himachal Pradesh if the party is voted to power, Shukla asked who stopped them from doing so in Uttarakhand where they promised it earlier.

Further targeting BJP over their manifesto, Shukla said, "First they were to release it on November 4. Then somebody told them Congress is releasing its manifesto on November 5. They copied and used points from our document. But what they forgot is that they had issued their manifesto in 2017 and they again incorporated some promises now which were not fulfilled earlier".

"So, they copied their own manifesto of 2017 and Congress' present poll manifesto," he alleged, adding, "They neither implemented promises in 2017 nor they are going to do it now, they only mislead people."

In 2017, they promised all roads will be connected with villages but they did nothing and they have now repeated the promise, Shukla claimed.

BJP promised StartUp fund last time and did nothing for five years. Now when they saw the congress manifesto talking about a Rs 680-crore StartUp fund, so they made this promise again, he claimed.

"In 2017 BJP promised one GB of data for free to the youth, but they did not fulfil that. The Congress in its 2022 manifesto promised 5 lakh jobs, out of which one lakh will be government jobs. The BJP promised the creation of eight lakh job opportunities phase-wise. They have not made it time-bound. So, this is just a 'jumla' (rhetoric)," he said.

The BJP said GST would be limited to 12 per cent for apple growers. But why are they not scrapping GST, the Congress asked.

About the old pension scheme, Alka Lamba said Congress-ruled Rajasthan and Chattisgarh have implemented it without the Centre's help and the beneficiaries reaping the getting gains.

"Within 10 days of coming to power, we will implement this in Himachal Pradesh too," she asserted.