PANAJI
​Manifesto-making is a serious business in an election year. And this time around, issues and constituency-specific manifestos are the flavour of the season, with each candidate and political party seeking to stand out of the herd by tailoring their assurances to suit the demands of their particular electorate.
In addition to the constituency manifestos, Congress and Goa Forward parties have also released their youth manifestos highlighting the demands and promises to the large, younger voters across the State which will go to polls on February 4.
The trend was set into motion by the Aam Aadmi Party which undertook around 350 ‘Goa Dialogues’, a comprehensive mass contact exercise which began in the second half of 2016 whereby the agenda-making for the party began from scratch.
Speaking to The Goan, AAP’s Sukirti Vinayak informed, “The idea behind this vast exercise was to understand the issues from the people and to evolve tangible promises based on these inputs. Goa Dialogues offered us to undertake an audit of the socio-economic and infrastructural demands and needs of each constituency. As a result, all 40 constituency manifestos and the state manifesto reflect a bottom-up assessment.”
While AAP’s state manifesto proposes broader solutions to various issues, the constituency manifestos delve into specifics of the issues.
“Through quantifying and putting a time-limit on its promises, AAP has factored accountability of its government into the documents. Otherwise, around 60 to 70 per cent of the promises made by parties through their manifestos are vague,” Vinayak pointed out.
During the Goa Dialogues, people across the state listed issues such as waste management, roads, public infrastructure, security and healthcare. But with the exception of a handful in the state, not many spoke about Mopa airport, special status and the Medium of Instruction (MoI) issues.
“It shows that these issues have been magnified by politicians to polarise the electorate even while fundamental issues have yet to be resolved,” Vinayak said.
Larger political parties such as the Congress and BJP too have released constituency-specific manifestos with each candidate, a former sitting MLA or a fresh face, have highlighted micro-level, specific issues and aspirations from the length and breadth of their constituency in the hope of garnering votes.
Congressman Girish Chodankar, who collated the documents for the party, stated, “We have focused on people-centric politics. Inputs for the manifesto were gathered from over 50,000 people during the six months when we distributed our chargesheet against the present government and were forwarded to a screening committee for finalisation. Only deliverables were retained in the final vision document which chalks out our plan for the coming five years.”
BJP is all set to unveil it's state manifesto for the upcoming polls. However, a few of its candidates including Panaji's Sidharth Kuncalienkar and Taleigao's Dattaprasad Naik have begun to hand out their constituency manifesto to the voters. "The idea is to take administration and government to the people. They need to have a link with your vision for them and hence, I have sourced all the inputs from my constituents for the Taleigao manifesto," Naik informed.
Similarly, NCP’s 17 candidates will soon begin to release their own manifestos. NCP leader Avinash Bhonsle informed that the party had less than a week to compile the documents after the talks for an alliance with the Congress failed to bear fruit.
“We have tried to identify genuine issues of the people and our solutions to these instead of seeking political mileage through offering an unrealistic single document,” Bhonsle stated.
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NEW APPROACH
- Aam Aadmi Party's state manifesto proposes broader solutions to various issues, while its constituency manifestos delve into specifics of the issues
- Other parties like Congress and BJP too have released constituency-specific manifestos, highlighting micro-level, specific issues and aspirations
- Goa Forward and some other parties have also released youth manifesto highlighting the demands and promises to woo young voters
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AREAS OF FOCUS
- According to AAP, waste management, roads, public infrastructure, security and healthcare were the most talked about topics during its Goa Dialogues exercise, while issues such as Mopa airport, special status and MOI didn't generate much interest
- Most of the parties are focusing on people-centric issues and seek to offer solutions to genuine problems affecting citizens
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