The BJP on Saturday constituted its election manifesto committee under the chairmanship of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh for the Lok Sabha elections. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has been named the convener of the committee and Union minister Piyush Goyal is the co-convener. The other members of the committee include Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav. Among the Union ministers on the committee are Dharmendra Pradhan, Arjun Munda, Bhupender Yadav, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Ashwini Vaishnav, Smriti Irani, Kiren Rijiju and Rajeev Chandrashekhar. Sources said many senior leaders who are not included in the committee may be made part of other organisational exercises related to the elections. Senior party leaders such as Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Vasundhara Raje, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Sushil Modi and party general secretary Vinod Tawde are also members of the committee. Rajnath Singh, a former BJP president, was the head of the BJP's manifesto committee for the 2019 polls as well. Many members have been repeated in the current panel as well. Among the new inductees, Anil K Antony from Kerala, who has also been fielded from the state, is a part of the committee. The committee shows a balanced mix of members from all major regions of India and also across caste groups. Tariq Mansoor from Uttar Pradesh is the sole Muslim member in the panel. The manifesto-preparation exercise will incorporate suggestions from people online and also via the party’s offline outreach to voters, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced some time ago. The BJP is already in the process of seeking suggestions from different groups and its national 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 inputs on the contents of its manifesto. With PM Modi often asserting that his third term will be marked by big decisions, the buzz around its manifesto has been gaining in traction. The Lok Sabha elections will be held in seven phases from April 19 to June 1, with counting of votes on June 4. — With PTI inputs
