The political upheaval in the BJP over its Chief Ministerial candidate has marred its preparations for the upcoming polls. With all prominent leaders busy fending for themselves, there has been no development in some important Committees like Finance and Manifesto.
These Committees, comprising leaders of various factions have not met even once after the introductory meeting that was held nearly a month ago. The BJP was supposed to complete the work on the manifesto by mid-October, but the work has been delayed owing to tumult within the party. The Manifesto Committee is headed by
Dr Harsh Vardhan, who is another frontrunner for BJP’s Chief Ministerial candidate along with the party’s State unit president Vijay Goel.
Meanwhile, the Election Campaign Committee held a meeting at the Delhi BJP head office on Friday wherein it was decided that the party would focus its campaign around the key issues of corruption, power and water tariff hike and women safety. Delhi BJP president Vijay Goel said these issues among others are also the key ingredients of the manifesto, which is
being prepared.
A meeting of the Finance Committee was scheduled on Friday, but not all members of the Committee were present. The five-member Finance Committee, headed by senior leader Nand Kishor Garg, has been assigned with the prime responsibility of generating finance for the party as also preparing the budget for election expenses. This includes allocation of funds under various heads like holding rallies and public meetings, expenses incurred on party’s star campaigners, transportation expenses as well as exploring the sources of revenue for the BJP.
This Committee also maintains a record of the income and expenditure made during the elections.
A senior Delhi BJP leader and a member of the Manifesto Committee said the process of preparing the manifesto has lost momentum in the last few days owing to political developments within the party. He, however, said meetings of some other Committees like the Publicity and Rallies, and Public Meeting Committees were going on.
“As politics has intensified within the party, the other important activities pertaining to electioneering have been affected. It will be in party’s interest if work on the Manifesto and Finance Management is completed soon,” said the leader.
Notably, the BJP was scheduled to prepare the manifesto, which presents party’s vision, agenda and promises for the polls, by October 20; though it would only be released just a few days before the elections. While Harsh Vardhan is heading the Manifesto Committee, he is assisted by four others, namely Vijender Gupta, Jagdish Mukhi, Mohan Singh Bisht and Subhash Arya.