The Hindu : National : New panel, new responsibilities

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Friday, Jun 25, 2004

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National

New panel, new responsibilities

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, JUNE 24. The Bharatiya Janata Party president, M. Venkaiah Naidu, today appointed five senior leaders to oversee the Assembly elections in five States scheduled to take place in the next 12 months. He also appointed a five-member committee to look into the reasons for the recent poll debacle and recommend corrective steps.

The general secretary, Pramod Mahajan, will be in charge of Maharashtra, where elections are due in September-October this year; general secretary Arun Jaitley will look after Bihar; general secretary Rajnath Singh will focus on Jharkhand; yet another general secretary, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, will look after Haryana; and the former Minister of State for Home, Swami Chinmayanand, will oversee Arunachal Pradesh.

The committee on the poll defeat has general secretary, Sanjay Joshi, as convener, and Mr. Chauhan, Sushil Kumar Modi, Anantha Kumar and Sudheendra Kulkarni as members.

The party earlier announced that responsibility would henceforth also mean accountability. All the five leaders given the charge of elections will be expected to "deliver" and they have been given ample time to prepare the ground.

In Maharashtra, it is known that the BJP will remain with its ally, Shiv Sena, but in Bihar where the party lost an ally in Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party, it may try to find some smaller groups to give it added strength. In Haryana, it may try to tie up with Bansilal's Haryana Vikas Party.

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