The BJP released its manifesto at the Shangri-La Hotel in Bengaluru on Monday with a careful focus on welfarism and key Hindutva agendas. Among its top promises, the BJP has announced schemes with a focus on Below Poverty Line families such as three free cooking gas cylinders annually during Ugadi, Ganesh Chaturthi and Diwali, and free half litre Nandini milk every day.

The party has said that it will bring in the National Register of Citizens and ensure that all “illegal immigrants” are deported in a timely fashion. To fight radicalism, Karnataka will have a new special police wing – ‘Karnataka-state wing against religious fundamentalism and terror (K-SWIFT)’.

At the launch of the manifesto, BJP president JP Nadda was asked to explain how the party’s promises don’t amount to distributing freebies – something it accuses the Congress of. Nadda explained that the BJP only empowers the poor and is not in the business of making everything free for everyone.

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