BJP vows two LPG cylinders per year, ₹3,000 pension in Kerala manifesto

E-PaperSubscribeSubscribeEnjoy unlimited accessSubscribe Now! Get features like The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday promised two free LPG cylinders per year -- one each during Onam and Christmas -- for poor households, a Bhakshya-Arogya Suraksha card with a monthly recharge of ₹2,500 for women from poor and BPL households and an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) as it released a 16-point manifesto for the April 9 assembly elections. Thiruvananthapuram: BJP National President Nitin Nabin, right, and the party's Kerala President Rajeev Chandrasekhar during the release of NDA's election manifesto for the upcoming state Assembly polls, in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, (PTI)The manifesto, unveiled by BJP national president Nitin Nabin in the state capital Thiruvananthapuram, has been branded as a 2026-31 blueprint for “vikasita Keralam” (developed Kerala), also promised monthly social welfare pension of ₹3,000, ₹20,000 litres of free water for each household and a new high-speed railway network. In his speech, after releasing the manifesto, Nabin claimed that decades of successive LDF and UDF governments in Kerala resulted in “negligible industrial growth, economic stagnation and fiscal misgovernance in the state”. He also accused both the fronts of following an appeasement policy toward a certain community, which hurt the sentiments of other faiths and beliefs, and promised that the NDA was committed to ensuring transparency, accountability, and greater participation of devotees in the affairs of shrines in Kerala. “We will protect Sabarimala, Guruvayoor and all other places of worship by revamping Devaswom Boards to increase participation of devotees in temple management,” he said. The manifesto also promised to launch a “Sabarimala Infrastructure Development Mission”, a CBI probe into the gold theft and large-scale devotee-centric infrastructure development at the hill-top shrine. Also Read: Can Pinarayi Vijayan sail through or will the ‘alternating power’ curse make a comeback in Kerala? One of its key promises is handing a “Bhakshya Arogya Suraksha Card” to every woman from poor and BPL households with a monthly recharge of ₹2,500. The card can be used at pharmacies and grocery stores, protecting the beneficiaries from price fluctuations in the market. The other crucial announcement is hiking the monthly social welfare pensions to ₹3,000 from the current ₹2,000 being dispensed by the LDF government. The pension would be paid to all women heads of poor households, senior citizens above the age of 70 and widows. On the agriculture front, the party has promised minimum support price (MSP) for all crops requiring support and amending existing forest and land laws to allow plantation farmers to go for multi-crop agriculture. Also Read: BJP tries to pacify FCRA ire among Kerala churches If elected to power, the BJP declares that it will set up an AIIMS hospital, a long-pending demand of the state. Though the LDF government has identified land for an AIIMS in Kozhikode district’s Kinaloor, the discussions with the Union government have not been fruitful. The BJP further promised a high-speed railway corridor between Thiruvananthapuram and Kannur, completion of all phases of the Kochi Metro and additional Metro services in Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram. On the long pending tussle over the Mullaperiyar dam, the BJP promised safety for the people of Kerala and water for the people of Tamil Nadu. Vishnu Varma is Assistant Editor and reports from Kerala for the Hindustan Times. He has 10 years of experience writing for print and digital platforms and has worked at The New York Times, NDTV and The Indian Express in the past. He specialises in longform reportage at the intersections of politics, crime, social commentary and environment.Read More