2019 Lok Sabha Polls: BJP forms 17 groups for collective coordinated campaign; Rajnath heads manifesto panel, Jaitley gets publicity

The Bharatiya Janta Party stepped up its 2019 Lok Sabha polls preparations by handing out election responsibilities to its key senior leaders and also announcing 17 major groups with an emphasis to strengthen coordination and communication within the party lines.

Rajnath Singh

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janta Party stepped up its 2019 Lok Sabha polls preparations by handing out election responsibilities to its key senior leaders and also announcing 17 major groups with an emphasis to strengthen coordination and communication within the party lines. Signalling that the crucial elections will be fought with cooperation from all leaders, party president Amit Shah distributed responsibility to almost all senior and key leaders. The BJP think tank has been very meticulous in doling out the responsibilities to its key leaders, based on their style of functioning and area of expertise. There is a lot of brain storming which went among party lines to choose the most apt leader for heading strategic groups and taking on the varied responsibilities. The party has also ensured that each group has well knit group  of leaders who can expedite decision making on different grounds. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj who has a natural flair for speaking and taking up critical  issues of national importance has been given charge of the content generation team Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad who is known to be quite candid and upfront with the media will oversee the activities of the media group. The social media committee will be headed by party secretary Shyam Jaju, who also leads the group for publicity material distribution. The Rajnath Singh-led manifesto committee has Union ministers Arun Jaitley, Nirmala Sitharaman, Thaawar Chand Gehlot, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Piyush Goyal, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, K J Alphons, Kiren Rijiju, Bihar Minister Sushil Modi, former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, senior leaders Arjun Munda, Ram Madhav, Bhupendra Yadav, Narayan Rane, Meenakshi Lekhi, Sanjay Paswan, Hari Babu and Rajendra Mohan Singh Cheema as its members. The manifesto committee headed by Rajanth Singh has several Union Ministers including Arun Jaitley, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Nirmala Sitharaman, Thaawarchand Gehlot, Piyush Goyal and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi besides party heavyweights such as Ram Madhav, former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and Lok Sabha MP Meenakshi Lekhi. Union Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari would head the social outreach committee while Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has been made in-charge of the media committee. Shyam Jaju will handle the social media committee. Rajya Sabha MP Bhupendra Yadav will head the committee that would handle matters pertaining to the election commission. Senior leaders such as Prakash Javadekar, Kailash Vijayvargiya, Kalraj Mishr, Sadanand Gowda, S.S. Ahluwalia, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Arun Singh, Anil Jain, Bandaru Dattatreya and Rajeev Chandrashekhar have been made members of different committees.