Rajnath to lead BJP manifesto panel

New Delhi: The BJP on Saturday announced a 27-member manifesto committee for the Lok Sabha elections headed by defence minister Rajnath Singh to discuss and seek suggestions from people across the country to prepare its list of poll promises.

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman is appointed the convener and commerce minister Piyush Goyal is the co-convener of the BJP’s manifesto committee.

The 27-member committee includes several Union ministers, besides chief ministers of states such as Gujarat, Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and seasoned leaders like Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Vasundhara Raje.

Union ministers Bhupender Yadav, Dharmendra Pradhan, Smriti Irani, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Arjun Munda, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Kiren Rijiju, Rajeev Chandrashekar are also members of the BJP’s manifesto committee.

The chief ministers of Gujarat Bhupendra Patel, Assam's Himanta Biswa Sarma, Chhattisgarh's Vishnu Deo Sai and Madhya Pradesh's Mohan Yadav are also in the committee.

Bihar leaders Sushil Kumar Modi and Ravi Shankar Prasad, Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, former Union minister Jual Oram and the BJP's organisational leaders like Vinod Tawde, Radha Mohan Das Agrawal, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Tariq Mansoor and Anil Antony have been included in the committee too.
Antony and Mansoor are among the party's Christian and Muslim faces, respectively. Former Haryana BJP president O.P. Dhankar is also a member.

The BJP has already started the process of seeking suggestions from different groups. Party president J.P. Nadda had last month flagged off "Viksit Bharat Modi ki Guarantee" video vans, which are meant to travel across the country to collect people's input on the contents of its manifesto.

This is the first time in many decades that some of the core ideological promises of the BJP may not find a mention in its election manifesto, which has added to the general curiosity about what will be the highlights of the ruling party's poll pledges this time.

With Article 370 repealed by the government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in its second term and the Ram temple construction in full swing and already open to devotees, two of the party's core promises for several polls have been fulfilled.

The BJP governments in some states are also working to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), another of its foundational pledges. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi often asserting that his third term will be marked by big decisions, the buzz around the party's manifesto has been gaining traction. The Lok Sabha polls are scheduled to be held between April 19 and June 1.