The Congress on Sunday led the Opposition charge against the BJP’s manifesto, billing it as high on “jumlas” and low on quantifiable promises.

“Modi ki guarantee = Jumlon ki warranty (Modi’s guarantee is a warranty on rhetoric),” Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said, countering the BJP’s slogan for this election.

In a post on X, Kharge sought to draw attention to the Narendra Modi government’s failure to deliver on its past promises — listing over a dozen such instances — to drive home the point that the Prime Minister’s guarantee does not count for much.

“What happened to the promise of two crore jobs annually, doubling farmers’ income, giving MSP as per the Swaminathan Commission formula, depositing Rs 15 lakh in every account…,” Kharge reeled out.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi questioned the BJP manifesto’s silence on jobs and price rise — two issues plaguing the masses. “The BJP does not want to discuss issues that are so crucial to people’s well-being,” Rahul said in a post on X.

Briefing the media on the BJP manifesto, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shinate said “jobs” featured only twice in the 76-page document.

“The Congress promises 30 lakh government jobs besides providing Rs 1 lakh per annum as stipend for apprenticeship whereas the BJP manifesto is only talking of filling up existing vacancies in a time-bound manner. Then why have they been tom-tomming about job creation for the past decade when they have allowed these vacancies to persist?” she said.

The Congress, which has promised a law to implement minimum support price (MSP), sought to go to town on the BJP’s silence on the issue.

The BJP has also gone silent on its 2019 manifesto promise of doubling farmers’ income by 2022 after having failed on this count. On MSP, the BJP’s latest manifesto more than once claimed “unprecedented increase in MSP” during the past 10 years while promising to continue to increase it from time to time.

The Congress has also called out the BJP’s claims on terrorism. In the manifesto, the BJP has claimed that there have been “zero major terror attacks in any city since 2014”, papering over terrorist strikes elsewhere, including Pulwama on the eve of the 2019 elections.

Srinate said 3,950 people had been killed in terrorist strikes in Jammu and Kashmir alone in the 10 years of Modi rule. “This includes security personnel and civilians, and yet the BJP makes the tall claim on having ended terrorism in the country,” she said.

The Congress has questioned the BJP’s silence on Manipur in its manifesto. While there is mention of the Northeast, there is not a word on Manipur.