NEW DELHI: Coming a long way from making pledges in 2014, the Congress's poll manifesto for 2019 promises a host of bold initiatives and delivery of a slew of welfare measures.
From the theme of "Your voice, Our pledge" - a commitment made to the people of the country in the last general election, the party has now moved on to the promise of "Congress will deliver".
The party said that this manifesto theme is in contrast to what it said was the BJP's "failures" to deliver on its promises made five years ago to the people of the country.
While the Congress in its last manifesto had focussed on economic reforms such as bringing in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) -- the new indirect tax regime and the passage of direct tax code bill, it has now moved to a series of initiatives aimed at wooing the poor and the farmers, with the major selling point being its much-touted "NYAY" scheme (minimum income guarantee scheme).
The party's focus in 2014 was of retaining power and had talked about its achievements of 10 years of the UPA government and promised to bring about more economic reforms.
Unlike in the past, in 2019 the party which is aiming to return to power is talking about jobs and agriculture distress, besides making a comprehensive review of various laws, including the scrapping of the sedition law and amending the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.
Though nationalism featured prominently in its 2014 document when the Congress projected the election as a fight between its "secular liberal nationalism versus BJP's narrow-minded communalism".
Now it has made it is a choice between "freedom and fear".
The party has also doubled the manifesto pages from a mere 27 to 54 now, making a host of bold promises and promising to bring in a slew of welfare measures.