Revisiting Manifestos: An Assessment and the Prospects for the Upcoming Indian General Election 2024

Abstract

India is the largest democracy and a land of multi-party-political system. During the wake of the election, every single party attempted to seize the attention of the citizenry, as they recognized their need to be legitimized by this set of political actors in India. In the phase of technological progression, while social media and alphanumeric expertise have traded almost all the old communication formats among these three political communication actors, the political parties, too, opt for more prompt forms of communication. What remains static is the party manifesto, a declared statement that is put into the movement as the proposed policy documents. In the same venture, almost a decade ago, India witnessed a political shift that was projected through the manifesto of the political party that is enjoying the position of the current Indian government. This research paper aims to analyze the released manifestoes of two national-level political giants in India, the BJP and INC, for the 2014 and 2019 general elections in India. It aims to explore the pattern of issues that are being addressed in the manifesto and to make predictions for the upcoming manifestos of the 2024 general election for both parties. The researcher has used the abductive reasoning method to make abductive predictions based on the previous manifestoes of the BJP and INC. After following the process of detailed exploration, examination, selection, and explanation, predictions have been given. The analysis explored that both political parties have their own exclusive issues of concern apart from common concerns, and these new set of issues will be posed in the manifesto of the 2024 general election