The Shiv Sena (UBT)’s election manifesto was graded as the worst among the manifestos of seven major political parties through an analysis conducted by the Informed Voter Project. The analysis also stated that the All India Trinamool Congress’ manifesto was the best among all, followed by Indian National Congress.
Informed Voter Project is a non-profit civil society organisation helping citizens to monitor the performance of their elected representatives and their deliverance on promises. Since 2009, the organisation has been working to provide detailed candidate profiles and comparative analyses like the report cards, wealth growth and criminal record analysis to enable voters to take an informed decision during the elections.
As the country enters its fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections, the Informed Voter Project released its analysis of the manifestos of the seven major political parties including the Bharatiya Janata Party, Indian national Congress, Communist Party of India (M), Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar), Shiv Sena (UBT), All India Trinamool Congress, and Communist Party of India.
The manifestos were studied through a double-blinded process of narrative analysis by autonomous analysts. The narrative analysis evaluated each element according to the parameters like diagnostic rigour, clarity of scope of the promise, clear timeline, clear budget outlay, clear implementation plan and clear commitment-oriented language.
Shiv Sena's Lowest Score Among Seven Other Manifestos
According to the analysis, the election manifesto of Shiv Sena (UBT) scored the lowest among all the seven manifestos. It scored ‘thumbs down’ in 8 of the 10 sectors, except Youth Affairs and Sports, and Environment, Forest and Climate Change, where it was graded as neutral. On the other hand, the INC manifesto received ‘thumbs up’ in seven fields and scored neutral in the rest.
AITC Manifesto Top Performer According To Analysis; Shiv Sena Scores Low On Farmers' Issues
The analysis said that the manifesto by AITC was the top performer among others as it scored impressively in the sectors of agriculture, health, labour & employment, and law & justice. According to the report, the AITC manifesto had clear references to the shortcomings of the current government in the field of agriculture as well as specific solutions to some prevalent issues in this sector. On the other hand, the manifesto of the Shiv Sena (UBT) scored low on all six hierarchical counts from diagnostic rigour to clear timelines when it came to farmers’ issues.
While the INC as well as BJP also clocked high scores on issues related to health, INC edged out BJP by scoring in the 88th percentile compared to BJP’s 71st percentile. The report says that the BJP manifesto does not mention healthcare expenditure and focuses more on achieving a non-specific increase in medical facilities and seats, along with an increase in access to generic medicines and other healthcare services. Compared to its own manifesto in 2019, the BJP manifesto for 2024 shies away from committing concrete numbers for many of its promises.
Unemployment Sector
AITC, CPI(M) and BJP were the top performing manifestos in the unemployment sector with a common acknowledgement of social security schemes for unorganised workers, including gig workers and migrant workers, whereas the BJP focused more on supporting the ‘start-up’ ecosystem. The manifesto of the INC and NCP also talk about filling 30 lakh government vacancies and INC also promises to institute a “Right to Apprenticeship Act”.
Gender Issue
On gender issues, especially those related to women, NCP (Sharad Pawar) scored high, coming in third after AITC and CPI(M) manifestos by “endeavouring” to achieve 50% reservations for women in government jobs and fast tracking women’s reservations in the parliament. This is echoed by the INC manifesto as well, which additionally promises 33% reservations for women in Lok Sabha elections.
