Last Updated: March 08, 2024, 19:30 IST
Top leadership of the Congress party. (File pic/PTI)
Congress party announces its election promises including paid apprenticeships for graduates to tackle unemployment concerns
Ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the Congress party on Friday announced the first list of 39 candidates, including Rahul Gandhi.
A day earlier, Congress had said it would guarantee paid apprenticeships to every graduate under 25 if it wins the upcoming election, as it tries to tap into voter concerns over high unemployment, even among the well-educated.
Opinion polls predict another big defeat for the party that has ruled India for much of its independent history but was thrashed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the last two general elections.
National elections are likely to be held in the coming weeks.
“We are going to ensure your ‘first job’ of Rs 1 lakh ($1,209) per year,” former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, said on X social media. “This historic plan of ours is a forever cure for the disease of unemployment.”
Gandhi, who is in the middle of a cross-country march exhorting young people to vote for Congress, said the party would enact a ‘Right to Apprentice Act’ guaranteeing a one-year apprenticeship in a government or private institution, with the opportunity to continue in the job.
“This revolutionary scheme will change the face of Indian industries and the destiny of the youth by closing the skill gap between industry and India’s workforce,” he said.
