Free saris and dhotis to poor people, free laptops to students, and hike in salary of teachers on contract would find place in the BJP manifesto for the Assembly elections.
Union finance minister Arun Jaitely and BJP president Amit Shah will release the BJP election manifesto on Thursday in the presence of senior central and state leaders.
BJP ministers from Bihar in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet will also attend the manifesto release function in Patna.
Bihar BJP in-charge Bhupender Yadav said: "Jaitley is going to release the party manifesto for the Assembly elections." Though Yadav refused to share details about the manifesto, he said it had been prepared keeping all sections of the society in mind.
Sources said the manifesto would feature many schemes, which the BJP leaders, including former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, have been promising once the BJP-led coalition forms government in the state. It includes free laptop schemes for students, sari-dhoti scheme for the underprivileged and even increasing the salaries of teachers on contract.
Various political parties have used mega clothes subsidy scheme for attaining power in respective states. The sources said free distribution of saris and dhotis was started in 1982 by then Tamil Nadu chief minister MG Ramachandran after monsoon failure in the state. Later, AIADMK and Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa carried out the free clothes subsidy schemes once started by her mentor.
The PM's ambitious digital revolution programme will also be part of the manifesto, as the BJP is likely to announce free laptops to students. Various political parties on earlier occasions announced free laptop scheme, eyeing young voters in southern states such as Tamil Nadu and even neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.
State BJP president Mangal Pandey said: "Our manifesto will focus on youths such as job creation and other educational schemes."
Sources said the manifesto would be of the BJP and not of the NDA as its different constituents Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP, JItan Ram Manjhi's HAMS and Upendra Kushwaha's RLSP would release their separate manifestoes.
Danish Rizwan, HAMS spokesperson, said: "HAMS will release its own manifesto. Later, all the NDA constituents will release their common minimum programme (CMP)."
Before the 2010 Assembly elections too both the JDU and BJP released separate manifestoes. Later, both the parties announced the CMP.
