Lok Sabha elections 2024: BJP vows to turn India into manufacturing hub

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, second right, releases his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s manifesto for the upcoming national parliamentary elections in New Delhi, India, Sunday, April 14, 2024. Standing from L to R with him are BJP’s senior leaders Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Party President JP Nadda. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, center, releases his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s manifesto for the upcoming national parliamentary elections in New Delhi, India, Sunday, April 14, 2024. Standing from L to R with him are BJP’s senior leaders Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Party President JP Nadda, and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks at an event during which he released his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s manifesto for the upcoming national parliamentary elections in New Delhi, India, Sunday, April 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, right, stands with senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, center, at an event during which he released BJP’s manifesto for the upcoming national parliamentary elections in New Delhi, India, Sunday, April 14, 2024.(AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) senior leader and Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar talks to a party colleague at an event organized to release their party’s manifesto for the upcoming national parliamentary elections in New Delhi, India, Sunday, April 14, 2024. Modi vowed to boost social spending, develop world-class infrastructure, and make India a global manufacturing hub as he unveiled his Hindu nationalist party’s election manifesto on Sunday. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi receives his Bharatiya Janata Party’s manifesto from BJP President JP Nadda, right, ahead of the upcoming national parliamentary elections in New Delhi, India, Sunday, April 14, 2024. Modi vowed to boost social spending, develop world-class infrastructure, and make India a global manufacturing hub as he unveiled his Hindu nationalist party’s election manifesto on Sunday. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi listens to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President JP Nadda speak during an event organized to release their party’s manifesto for the upcoming national parliamentary elections in New Delhi, India, Sunday, April 14, 2024. Modi vowed to boost social spending, develop world-class infrastructure, and make India a global manufacturing hub as he unveiled his Hindu nationalist party’s election manifesto on Sunday. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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Indian prime Minister Narendra Modi, second right, talks to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) senior leaders and cabinet colleagues Home Minister Amit Shah, left, and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, right, listens to a speaker at an event organized to release their party’s manifesto for the upcoming national parliamentary elections in New Delhi, India, Sunday, April 14, 2024. Modi vowed to boost social spending, develop world-class infrastructure, and make India a global manufacturing hub as he unveiled his Hindu nationalist party’s election manifesto on Sunday. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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Indian prime Minister Narendra Modi, right, talks to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) senior leaders and his cabinet colleagues Home Minister Amit Shah, left, and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh during an event organized to release their party’s manifesto for the upcoming national parliamentary elections in New Delhi, India, Sunday, April 14, 2024. Modi vowed to boost social spending, develop world-class infrastructure, and make India a global manufacturing hub as he unveiled his Hindu nationalist party’s election manifesto on Sunday. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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Indian prime Minister Narendra Modi, second right, sits with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) senior leaders and cabinet colleagues Home Minister Amit Shah, left, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP President JP Nadda, right, at an event organized to release their party’s manifesto for the upcoming national parliamentary elections in New Delhi, India, Sunday, April 14, 2024. Modi vowed to boost social spending, develop world-class infrastructure, and make India a global manufacturing hub as he unveiled his Hindu nationalist party’s election manifesto on Sunday. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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Drummers walk alongside a vehicle with hoardings showing portraits of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Anirban Ganguly, during an election rally for the forthcoming national parliamentary election in Kolkata, India, Sunday, April 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)

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Drummers wearing shirts printed with a portrait of the local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Anirban Ganguly wait to play during an election rally for the forthcoming national parliamentary election in Kolkata, India, Sunday, April 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)

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Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Anirban Ganguly, center, walks behind a banner showing portraits of Indian thinkers and freedom fighters during an election rally for the forthcoming national parliamentary election in Kolkata, India, Sunday, April 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)

By ASHOK SHARMA

NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday vowed to boost social spending, develop infrastructure and make India into a global manufacturing hub as companies shift away from China, as he unveiled his Hindu nationalist party’s election strategy.

Modi hopes to return to power for a third five-year term. He and other leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party unveiled their promises in the world’s largest democracy days before the start of a multi-phase general election.

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Modi promised to expand social programs introduced during his party’s 10-year rule, including millions of free homes for the poor, along with health care, cooking gas and free grain. His government has been paying 6,000 rupees ($73) a year to poor farmers.

He said his government’s policies have pulled 250 million people out of poverty since he came to power in 2014. India is the world’s most populous country with over 1.4 billion people. The BJP’s president, J.P. Nadda, said less than 1% of Indian people now live in extreme poverty.

India holds its elections on different days in different parts of the country, stretching over weeks. Voting for the country’s parliament will begin on April 19 and run until June 1, and results will be announced on June 4.

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FILE- India’s opposition Congress party leaders from left, Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, and Rahul Gandhi, display copies of party’s election manifesto during a press conference in New Delhi, India, April 5, 2024. India's 6-week-long general election starts on April 19 and results will be announced on June 4. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup, File)

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A polling official puts indelible ink mark on the index finger of a woman as she arrives to vote during the first round of voting of India’s national election in Chennai, southern Tamil Nadu state, Friday, April 19, 2024. Nearly 970 million voters will elect 543 members for the lower house of Parliament for five years, during staggered elections that will run until June 1. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

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FILE- Supporters of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) react as they listen to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speak at an election rally in Meerut, India, March 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File)

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Most polls have predicted a victory for Modi and the BJP. But the opposition Congress Party argues that Modi has undermined India’s democracy and favored the interests of the rich.

Modi has been campaigning extensively across the country, promising to expand India’s economy to $5 trillion by 2027 from around $3.7 trillion. He also promises to put India on track to become a developed country by 2047, when the country celebrates 100 years of independence from British colonialists.

On Sunday, he said his party would develop India as a hub for the pharmaceutical, energy, semiconductor and tourism industries. He also said India will modernize its infrastructure, including its railways, airways, and waterways. And he said he will seek to increase jobs for young people and access to cheap loans for young entrepreneurs.

Modi is broadly popular in India, where he’s considered a champion of the country’s Hindu majority and has overseen rapid economic growth.

But critics say another term for the BJP could undermine India’s status as a secular, democratic nation, saying its 10 years in power have brought attacks by Hindu nationalists against the country’s minorities, particularly Muslims, and a shrinking space for dissent and free media.

India’s Modi vows to boost social spending, make country into a manufacturing hub ahead of election