New Delhi, October 29: The Congress on Monday invited people to participate in the process of drafting the 2019 Lok Sabha election manifesto asking them to post suggestions on a dedicated interactive website created for the purpose.
“We want people and party workers to send their suggestions. We want to make this process as interactive as possible,” P Chidambaram, former minister and chairman, Congress manifesto committee, said while launching the website manifesto.inc.in.
The manifesto invites suggestions in 16 languages and the Chidambaram-led panel said it would factor in every recommendation that came.
Asked when the manifesto would be launched, Chidambaram said that was for the Congress Working Committee to decide.
“We will draft the manifesto and give it to the CWC. The process of consultations will go well into December and January so the people will have a lot of time to engage in the process,” said the former finance minister.
The Congress is also holding public interactions to gather inputs for its next General Election manifesto.
The last consultation was held in Mumbai and was led by Chidambaram along with manifesto panel convenor Rajeev Gowda.
So far 31 consultations have been held with former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda chairing the one on agriculture, ex-minister Kumari Selja chairing another on urban solutions and Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal holding one with ex-servicemen.
Deliberations have also been held on economy, education, health, industries, art and heritage and other sectors.
Chidambaram acknowledged that farm loan waiver was one of the suggestions that came up during consultations on agriculture but said the Congress wouldn’t make any formal promises on the issue yet.
They would come to the stage of promising later, he said.
On timelines for fulfilling manifesto promises, Gowda said Congress chief Rahul Gandhi is keen on time-tables and budgeting for promises and that was one of the priorities for the party.
