Rajnath to steer BJP’S LS manifesto committee, Jaitley to head publicity
NEW DELHI: As it prepares to seek re-election this summer, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday designated Union home minister Rajanth Singh as the head of its manifesto committee. Union minister Arun Jaitley has been given the charge of the party’s publicity and dissemination division.
Senior functionaries, including ministers, have been given charge of various committees. The panels would be involved in the preparation of the manifesto, and in undertaking work related to the publicity, media and beneficiary outreach. The total number of these committees is 17.
As per a list that BJP president Amit Shah issued, Union minister Nitin Gadkari has been given charge of the committee established to reach out to the non-governmental and social sectors.
Gadkari has not been included either in the manifesto or in the publicity committee. Both are considered crucial for disseminating the party’s message to the electorate.
Gadkari recently courted controversy after he was quoted to have raised questions over accountability within the party following the BJP’S loss in the three Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh.
Other members of the 20-member manifesto committee include Jaitley, his cabinet colleagues, Nirmala Sitharaman, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Piyush Goyal, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and KJ Alphons. Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union minister Kiren Rijiju, and Rajya Sabha member Bhupendra Yadav are also the manifesto committee members.
Veteran leader Murli Manohar Joshi had led the manifesto committee in 2014. He does not figure in any of the new committees.
Jaitley’s committee has seven other members. They include Union ministers Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Mahesh Sharma, and Piyush Goyal as well as former Delhi BJP President Satish Upadhyay.
The BJP, which sees beneficiaries of various government schemes as a potential vote bank, has made Parliament member Saroj Pandey as the in charge of the 13-member committee that will reach out to them.
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj will head the group that will produce literature for the polls. Her cabinet colleagues, Ravi Shankar Prasad, and Prakash Javadekar, will head the media committee and the that for interaction with intellectuals respectively.