The Congress on Sunday sought to emphasise its economic policies and reassure "market participants" a day before polling in India’s financial capital Mumbai, promising to replace the "climate of fear and uncertainty" created by the Narendra Modi government with "stable, predictable policymaking".

The party contested Union home minister Amit Shah’s "fear-mongering" over market volatility at the thought of a non-BJP government at the Centre, and underlined the salient features of the party manifesto's take on the economy.

"The INDIA coalition is coming to power, and it shall herald a new age of stable, predictable policymaking and overall prosperity," Congress communications-in-charge Jairam Ramesh said on X.

Shah had on May 13 encouraged people to take advantage of the dip in the share market with the promise that it would boom after June 4, the day of counting. The Congress has chosen to react six days later, clearly with an eye on the polling in Mumbai.

"We remind market participants that Dr. (Manmohan) Singh’s government ended its tenure with a fiscal deficit of 4.5 per cent of GDP (2013-14), much below the 5.8 per cent fiscal deficit in the Modi government’s final year (2023-24)," Ramesh said in his statement on X.

An INDIA government, Ramesh said, "will remove the current environment of distrust and fear, and create a healthy ecosystem where private enterprises, regulatory authorities, tax authorities and government will work in a spirit of mutual cooperation and respect".

Ramesh projected this as a contrast to the Modi government’s "vindictive and arbitrary approach whose main goal was to extort funds, suppress competition against a favoured few and eliminate all freedom in decision-making".