Union Ministers Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh
BJP, which is aiming for tightening its rein in the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections, appointed party bigwigs and Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley as the head of 20-member 'sankalp patra' (manifesto) committees and publicity wing respectively for the crucial polls. The fresh appointments were made by BJP President Amit Shah on Sunday.
Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Piyush Goyal, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan are the other members of the committee tasked with preparing the party's manifesto, a statement said.
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Union minister Nitin Gadkari will head a committee which will reach out to social and volunteer organisations while his Cabinet colleague Sushma Swaraj will head a group that will produce literature for the polls, it added.
Prasad will head the party's media group while Union minister Prakash Javadekar will lead the wing which will organise meetings of intellectuals.
A committee will deal with "pravas" (tour) of party leaders, another with social media while a third group, whose 13 members include party general secretary Saroj Pandey, will reach out to beneficiaries of various government schemes, the statement said.
BJP vice president Shyam Jaju and its information technology wing in-charge Amit Malviya are in the 13-member social media committee.
The eight-member publicity wing members include Union ministers Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Mahesh Sharma, party general secretary Anil Jain, its Rajya Sabha MP and businessman Rajeev Chandrasekhar besides Goyal.
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar deputy chief ministers- Keshav Prasad Maurya and Sushil Modi- party general secretaries Bhupender Yadav and Ram Madhav, former Maharashtra chief minister Narayan Rane, former Jharkhand chief minister Arjun Munda are among the other members of the manifesto committee.
All party's national spokespersons, which include its media head Anil Baluni and his deputy Sanjay Mayukh, will be part of its media committee to be headed by Prasad.
Shah also announced committees to deal with transportation, distribution of literature, Mann ki Baat, a monthly radio broadcast by the prime minister, and bike rally.
Part general secretary Arun Singh will look after the 'Mann ki Baat' committee and also the one tasked with spearheading the office works.
Yadav will be a key member of the committee which will deal with matters related to the Election Commission.
In the run-up to the elections, Shah has made a host of appointments, including of in-charges and their associates for different states, to spearhead the party's campaign.
Earlier on Saturday, the party appointed Union Ministers JP Nadda, Piyush Goyal and Nirmala Sitharaman as election in-charge for Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Delhi respectively.
The Lok Sabha polls are expected to be held in April-May with the BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking a re-election.
