Rajnath Singh to head BJP’s manifesto panel of 20

New Delhi: Formally setting the BJP into election mode, party president Amit Shah on Sunday gave key electoral responsibilities to Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari, Sushma Swaraj and Ravi Shankar Prasad. The party has already launched a social media campaign #Modi OnceMore and Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself is likely to address nearly 100 rallies across different states ahead of the Election Commission’s official announcement of the poll schedule.

While home minister Rajnath Singh will head the manifesto committee for the crucial 2019 electoral battle, finance minister Arun Jaitley will head the publicity committee. A committee headed by road transport minister Nitin Gadkari will reach out to social and volunteer organisations while external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj will head the committee that will produce literature for the polls. Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will head the media committee, while minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, social justice minister Thawarchand Gehlot and railway minister Piyush Goyal are part of the 20-member manifesto committee. Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, national general secretaries Bhupendra Yadav and Ram Madhav and Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi are also part of the manifesto committee.

Mr Goyal and minister of state for information and broadcasting minister Rajyavardhan Rathore are also a part of the eight-member publicity committee headed by Mr Jaitley.

The BJP chief formed 17 groups in preparation for the general election, including one on social media amd one that will be in touch with the beneficiaries of key government schemes. Human resources development minister Prakash Javadekar will head a committee that will organise meetings of intellectuals.