The Hindu : BJP sets up two panels

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 08, 2004

National

National

BJP sets up two panels

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 7. A day after the national council session put the BJP in election gear, the party president, M. Venkaiah Naidu, today announced the setting up of a new-look nine-member central parliamentary board and a 17-member central election committee.

The two forums, to be headed by Mr. Naidu in accordance with the party constitution, will include the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and his deputy, L.K. Advani. The party general-secretary, Pramod Mahajan, will be the secretary.

After being formally declared the BJP president for a three-year term on Friday, Mr. Naidu began putting in place the nitty-gritty of the electioneering apparatus for the coming Lok Sabha polls.

Among the nine members of the parliamentary board will be Murli Manohar Joshi, Jaswant Singh, Mr. Mahajan, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Sanjay Joshi. The election committee will have Rajnath Singh, Keshubhai Patel, Pyarelal Khandelwal, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Anita Arya, Sushil Kumar Modi and Babulal Marandi as members. Both the forums will function till the Lok Sabha elections after which they may be recast if necessary.

Mr. Naidu said at a press conference here that the party's campaign would focus on development, leadership and the BJP's future vision of the country. The party cadres would complete the "Atal sandesh yatra" by month-end, reaching out to people in villages also.

He said Mr. Vajpayee rang him up this morning and expressed satisfaction over Friday's national council session. Mr. Naidu said party cadres would be asked to take up four crucial issues and refresh their knowledge. Each worker would have information about five important achievements of the National Democratic Alliance Government, five development-related achievements, five aspects of the country's future and the BJP's vision and highlight five failures and weaknesses of the Opposition.

The Lok Sabha constituency conferences would be held wherever the BJP or its allies fielded a candidate.

Hundred major rallies would be held and the cadres would try to collect Rs. 25 crores for the election fund. Coupons in denominations of Rs. 10,000, Rs. 5000 and Rs. 1,000 would be handed out to the party workers for the collection of funds.

Mr. Naidu also introduced two former Union Ministers — Captain Jai Narain Prasad Nishad and Arvind Netam — to the media as they joined the BJP today.

While Jai Narain Prasad Nishad is a Janata Dal (United) member of the now-dissolved 13th Lok Sabha from Muzaffarpur, Bihar, Mr. Netam, a tribal leader from Chhattisgarh, is a former Congressman who switched several sides before joining the BJP.

Mr. Naidu said the party was riding high on the new trend of several leaders from backward castes and scheduled tribes coming to the party fold.

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