BJP's Broken Promises: Mumbai Non-Profit Reveals 2019 Election Manifesto Failures

Mumbai, Maharashtra: Ahead of the Maharashtra assembly elections, a Mumbai-based non-profit organisation revealed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) failed to fulfil all promises they made in their manifesto for the 2019 state assembly polls.

As part of their Informed Voter Project, a non-profit civil collective, MumbaiVotes.com, revealed on Wednesday the findings of their study, which included a comparative analysis of promises made versus the performance of the saffron party in the state.

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The study found that in its 2019 manifesto, the BJP made five promises related to energy while it only managed to perform less than 20 percent on them. Similarly, with 16 promises related to transport and 8 to water, the performance of the party was less than 20 percent. Meanwhile, the party’s performance related to labour and employment, where it made 7 promises, was less than 60 percent, as per the study.

The Broken Promises

Labour & Employment

In terms of labour and employment, the BJP’s promise to setup IT parks in Pune, Nagpur, Kolhapur, Aurangabad, and Nashik to generate employment is also unfulfilled. The study highlights that none of the existing 63 centres across India were inaugurated in Maharashtra between 2019 and 2024. They were set up in 1991.

Another promise was to include all unorganised sector workers in pension schemes, which the BJP broke. At least 1.29 crore workers from Mahrasthra (accounted for by the e-shram portal) did not register for the PMSYM Scheme. Only 6.14 lakh workers out of 1.35 crore of the unorganised workers in the state were registered in the scheme.

Transport

The saffron party promised to set up new airports in Pune and Nagpur. However, in reality, the airport is still in the planning stages, with land acquisition yet to be completed. Additionally, there is no information regarding a new airport in Nagpur.

The BJP also failed to fulfil its transport-related promises, with the Metro construction in Mumbai, Pune, and Nagpur still remaining incomplete. The study recorded that the total progress calculated across the three cities during the BJP’s tenure is nearly 105.91 km, with 199.51 km still remaining. The study also found that around 65 percent of the promised Metro network continues to be not operational in the above-mentioned cities.

A Mumbai-Nagpur bullet train was, although promised by the BJP; however, no clear data on the work done for the same is available.

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Water

Another promise made by the party was to make the state drought-free, which the BJP failed to fulfil. The areas affected by drought in the state have increased to 73 percent, the study stated.

Completing the Narpar Pinjal river linking project also remains broken, as although the project was initiated in 2010, work has not started as of 2024.

While the party promised to create an integrated system for effective implementation of all drinking water supply schemes in the state, no new system was developed.

Energy

Some of the key promises that the BJP promised in its manifesto for the 2019 state assembly elections include improving the electricity distribution system in Maharashtra. According to the study, the power supply network is much worse and inadequate now than it was in 2019.

The party’s promise to generate electricity from waste, the study found that the party’s performance marked a mere 6.5 percent.

The BJP promised to generate 25 percent of the electricity needs of state government buildings from rooftop solar energy, but virtually no verifiable progress has been made yet.

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Vivek Gilani, a trustee of the project, expressed his surprise in finding the lack of performance to be “so thinly veiled.” He added, “It was relatively simple to unpack and unearth the mediocre performance that we’ve witnessed across the spectrum of issues,” as quoted by The Hindu.

Gilani also said that they decided to conduct the study as they didn’t find civil society institutions being involved in political accountability in Mumbai, Pune, and others.