BJP Sankalp Patra 2019: 75 promises for India’s 75th year of independence

The Bharatiya Janata Party released its manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the Sankalp Patra, at the party’s headquarters in New Delhi on 8 April 2019, three days before the first phase of polling. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president Amit Shah, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who chaired the manifesto committee, and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj were on the stage.

What the manifesto promised

The document was built around 75 targets that the party said it would meet by 2022, the 75th anniversary of independence. Introducing it, Amit Shah argued that the first Modi government had raised India’s standing abroad and taken what he called 50 major decisions at home, and said the party had consulted about six crore people while drafting it.

• Farmers: a pension for small and marginal farmers after the age of 60, and an extension of direct income support to more farm households.
• Traders: a Rashtriya Vyapari Ayog (national traders’ commission) and pensions for small shopkeepers.
• Security and Jammu and Kashmir: a renewed commitment to remove Article 370 and Article 35A.
• Ram temple: a promise to explore every possibility, within the Constitution, for building a temple in Ayodhya.

The manifesto arrived six days after the Congress published its own, whose centrepiece was NYAY, a promise of Rs 72,000 a year to the poorest fifth of households. The BJP’s focus on farmer pensions and traders was widely read as its answer to that pitch.

The election

Voting was held in seven phases between 11 April and 19 May 2019, and the votes were counted on 23 May.

What happened next

The BJP won 303 of the 543 seats, up from 282 in 2014 and a majority on its own; with its allies the National Democratic Alliance held 353. Narendra Modi was sworn in for a second term on 30 May 2019. Two of the manifesto’s best-known promises were acted on within months: Parliament removed the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 in August 2019, and a contributory pension scheme for small and marginal farmers was launched later that year. The Supreme Court’s November 2019 judgment on the Ayodhya dispute cleared the way for the Ram temple, which was consecrated in January 2024.

See also: the current members of the Lok Sabha and seat counts for every party.

Originally published on 8 April 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026, with the background and what happened next added.

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