3 Chief Ministers, party stalwarts in eleven-member Campaign Committee
The BJP’s “most popular leader” Narendra Modi’s supremacy in the party got reinforced yet again on Friday when it announced names for the Modi-led Campaign Committee and brought almost
the entire Parliamentary Board and three Chief Ministers under it. However, BJP president Rajnath Singh managed to get some of his people in as chairman or member of the sub-committees that will work under the poll panel.
The Campaign Committee will consist of 11 members including former presidents Murli Manohar Joshi, M Venkaiah Naidu and Nitin Gadkari; leaders of Opposition Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley; general secretaries Thawar Chand Gehlot and Ananth Kumar, and Organisational Secretary Ram lal.
They are all members of the party’s highest decision-making body, the Parliamentary Board. The campaign committee will also include Chief Ministers of three party-ruled States, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Goa.
“These 11 members will work under the Chairmanship of Narendra Modi and under the guidance of party patriarch Atal Bihari Vajpayee, veteran lK Advani and party president Rajnath Singh,” a party release said.
Asked if this meant other leaders of the party have accepted Modi’s “leadership,” general secretary Ananth Kumar replied, “Modi is the Chairman of the Campaign Committee. All members and sub-committees will work under him.”The party also constituted 20 sub-committees to look after specific jobs.
Murli Manohar Joshi will be Chairman of the Manifesto Committee while Gadkari will head the panel to prepare the Vision Document.
Gopinath Munde will head the panel on the “Charge sheet against the UPA”.
Swaraj, Jaitley, Amit Shah and Sudhanshu Trivedi will form the sub-committee to take care of publicity and campaign. Ananth Kumar and Varun Gandhi are members of the sub-committee for rallies.
Shah will also head a panel on New Voters while Rajiv Pratap Rudy got charge of the sub-committee for Intellectuals and Friends of BJP. Ram lal and two other organisational secretaries will constitute the sub-committee for Electoral Organisations.
Party’s vice-president SS Ahluwalia has been appointed Chairman of the sub-committee to launch a special programme for the North-East while Rudy has been appointed Chairman of the Sub-Committee for Coordination of Booth Committees.
Rajya Sabha MP Balbir Punj got charge of the literature Sub-Committee while the party’s treasurer Piyush Goel will be Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Information Communication Campaign on social networking sites.