The Congress on Saturday promised to provide 300 units of free electricity and allocate a Rs 10-crore start-up fund for each constituency in Himachal Pradesh if it comes to power in the state. The party released its manifesto at an event oin Shimla.

Elections to the 68-seat Himachal Pradesh Assembly will be held in a single phase on November 12. The results will be announced on December 8.

The Congress has also vowed to revive the old pensions scheme, provide employment to five lakh youngsters, give a monthly allowance of Rs 1,500 to women in the state, run mobile clinics and procure cow dung cakes at Rs 2 per kilogram.

At a press conference on Saturday, Dhani Ram Sandhil, the Congress poll manifesto committee chairperson, said that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party had failed to live up to the expectations of the voters of Himachal Pradesh and has not fulfilled the promises it had made ahead of the 2017 elections.

“This is not just a poll manifesto but a document prepared for the development and welfare of the people of Himachal Pradesh,” Shandil said.

Soon after the manifesto was released, BJP chief JP Nadda, while addressing a gathering in Himachal Pradesh’s Bilaspur, asked if any Congress prime minister had visited the state as many times as Narendra Modi has in the last eight years, ANI reported.

“This shows how they perceived Himachal Pradesh and how PM Modi perceives it,” he said. “Double engine government in Centre and state is necessary so that development doesn’t stop in the hills.”