2019 Lok Sabha polls: Rajnath to head BJP's manifesto committee

New Delhi, Jan 6: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will lead BJP's 20-member 'sankalp patra' (manifesto) committee and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will be in-charge of publicity.

The BJP on Sunday appointed senior leaders Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley as the head of 20-member 'sankalp patra' (manifesto) committee and publicity wing respectively for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as its president Amit Shah formed 17 groups in preparation for the elections.

The announcement comes a day after the party appointed appointed Lok Sabha poll in-charge in five states, giving charge of Uttar Pradesh to Union Health Minister JP Nadda and of Delhi to Defence Minister Niramala Sitharaman.

Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Piyush Goyal and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan are the other members of the committee tasked with preparing the party's manifesto, a statement said. Jaitley will also be a member of this committee.

Union minister Nitin Gadkari will head a committee which will reach out to social and volunteer organisations while his Cabinet colleague Sushma Swaraj will head a group that will produce literature for the polls, it added.

Prasad will head the party's media group while Union minister Prakash Javadekar will lead the wing which will organise meetings of intellectuals.

The Lok Sabha polls are expected to be held in April-May with the BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking re-election.

with PTI inputs