This is the photograph Sonia Gandhi wanted on Congress manifesto cover

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi had an issue with the colour scheme used in the election manifesto released by the Congress on Tuesday. Mrs Gandhi, the former president of the party, spoke to Rajeev Gowda, the head of party's research department right before the function to release the manifesto at Congress headquarters in New Delhi. Sources told WION that she wanted lighter colours on the cover of the manifesto instead of the dark theme used currently.

Gowda, the convener of the manifesto committee of Congress, acknowledged the conversation with Mrs Gandhi. "We did not put leaders' face on the manifesto because we wanted to put people on the cover. This cover is a departure from past and decision was reached after many rounds of meeting which included senior leaders like Sam Pitroda," he said.

Sonia Gandhi, after going through the manifesto, suggested that photograph published on page nine of the party's manifesto could have been used as the cover picture. The photograph showed Congress president Rahul Gandhi sitting with a group of rural women with ghoonghat (veil).

(The photo which was used as the cover of Congress's manifesto)

Sources said that the said photo was dropped for the wrong messaging it would have done. "The picture looked very good in context of colour scheme but women were in ghooghat and we were against putting this photograph on the front page," sources told WION.

Gowda, meanwhile, clarified that no discussion took place about the size of Rahul Gandhi's photograph on the cover, nor there was any suggestion on part of Sonia Gandhi to add photographs of other leaders. When WION enquired about absence of Mahatma Gandhi on the cover, Gowda said, "It is not easy to use Gandhi's picture during election time for various reasons." Rajeev Gowda said that manifesto signals professionalism and show case a modern approach. When asked whether Sonia Gandhi enquired about absence of other leaders on manifesto, Gowda said, "No conversation of this nature took place." Though it is being said Sonia Gandhi also enquired about the absence of photographs of older leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru.

Former finance minister P Chidambaram is the chairman of the manifesto committee.

The much-talked-about manifesto was released by Rahul Gandhi with a tagline "Congress Will Deliver". The manifesto promised the Congress will create jobs, address farm distress, bring in a single moderate rate of GST and give Rs 72,000 per annum to poor families if it comes to power in the Lok Sabha polls.

In the 55-page document, the Congress also promised to come out with separate budget for farmers, fill up 22 lakh government vacancies, allocate six per cent of GDP to education, assured 50 more days of guaranteed jobs from current 100 under the MNREGA, boosting healthcare infrastructure and enhance safety of women.