Gandhinagar: In a surprise move,ruling Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) has not released its manifesto even when the campaign for first phase polling is over. BJP had constituted a committee to prepare manifesto well in advance. Several meetings had taken place to finalize the draft of manifesto. Some of such meetings were also attended by State election incharge and union finance minister Arun Jaitley. However surprisingly neither a manifesto, nor vision document has been released so far.

It’s worth noting that BJP is in power in Gujarat for last 22 years continuously. If it wishes to give new promises or make new announcements, it would attract counter question that why party could not do such and such things in previous years. Another reason could be – BJP could be questioned why it has not fulfilled the promises given in previous manifestos and why same announcements are repeated in fresh manifesto. It is also possible that some in party believe, announcing a manifesto is meaningless exercise and it should be dropped.

It’s worth noting that during the entire Gujarat campaign, BJP has not uttered a word about what it is going to do in next five years if elected to power. Amit Shah in his couple of talks said the party would ensure tap water supply to all if elected to power. Vijay Rupani announced zero per cent farm loan to farmers. But nothing more has been said about next five-year agenda of party if elected to power.

Whether the party can announce its manifesto prior to second phase of polling? Or before first phase polling – a day before it? There’s no answer.

Opposition Congress party had constituted a manifesto committee and held hearings presided by technocrat Sam Pitroda at several places across the State. The party released a bulky manifesto draft earlier this wee which has been neither criticized nor ridiculed by rival BJP like in the past.

Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel today on twitter went on to say: BJP has not even bothered to produce in front of the voters a manifesto or vision for Gujarat. This is because. 1. Vikas was never their agenda, 2. They don’t want to answer questions about 2012 promises, 3. They have realized that their defeat is certain.