Modi promises India jobs, infrastructure if re-elected
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is promising to create jobs, boost infrastructure and expand welfare program if it wins a third term.
The general election, which begins on Friday will be held in seven stages until June 1.
Votes are due to be counted on June 4 and results are expected the same day.
Modi, 73, is widely tipped to win a record-equalling third term on the back of his 10-year record, which includes strong economic growth, infrastructure projects, welfare handouts and aggressive Hindu nationalism.
Surveys, however, suggest unemployment, inflation and rural distress remain issues of concern in the world's most populous country despite its strong economy, and addressing these will be Modi's biggest challenge.
"Our focus is on dignity of life ... on quality of life, our focus is also on creating jobs through investment," Modi said after releasing the manifesto, titled Modi's Guarantee, at the party headquarters in the capital.
Modi said the manifesto was focused on creating jobs in sectors such as infrastructure, aviation, railways, electric vehicles, green energy, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, among others, in a bid to address discontent at unemployment levels that are rising despite strong economic growth.
"India's youth will not have even imagined the number of opportunities that will come their way," he told cheering BJP members, including top federal ministers who sat in the audience wearing stoles featuring the BJP's lotus symbol.
Congress, the main opposition party, which has been struggling to revive its fortunes, said it was not impressed by a manifesto that is filled with "empty promises".
"Today, people want to ask what happened in the last 10 years," Congress MP Manish Tewari said.
"Unemployment is rampant and inflation has broken the back of common people.
"The people of the country will hold him (Modi) to account for what's happened in the last 10 years."
Modi also vowed to expand welfare programs, including bringing all Indians aged 70 and older an existing free health insurance program and pushing piped cooking gas connections to all houses to follow up on a subsidised cooking gas cylinder program launched in 2016.
Other BJP promises include raising the cap on loans for non-farming small and micro borrowers, offering free housing for another 30 million poor and keeping up a free grains program for 800 million Indians until 2029.
The manifesto said the BJP government would continue to focus on a path of low inflation and fiscal prudence to achieve high economic growth.
"The ambition of the 1.4 billion people of the country is Modi's mission," Modi said.
"I am placing this manifesto before the people to seek their blessings.
"Please bless us ... to increase our strength ... implement this manifesto and ensure a developed India."
