The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has formed a 31-member committee tasked with creating the party’s manifesto for the upcoming Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, a state it previously governed for 15 years before losing to the Congress in 2018.
Arun Sao, the Chhattisgarh BJP chief, has constituted the panel, which will be spearheaded by Lok Sabha MP Vijay Baghel. Serving alongside Baghel as co-conveners will be MLA Shivratan Sharma, former MP Ramvichar Netam, and former state minister Amar Agrawal.
Other notable panel members include MLAs Krishnamurti Bandhi and Ranjana Sahu, former ministers Lata Usendi, Chandrashekhar Sahu, and Mahesh Gagda, as well as former civil servant turned politician, OP Chaudhary.
Baghel, a native of the Kurmi community – one of the state’s influential OBC groups – currently represents the Durg parliamentary seat. The BJP held power in Chhattisgarh from 2003 to 2018 under the leadership of former Chief Minister Raman Singh.
The move to establish this panel follows a series of critical decisions made within the BJP pertaining to the forthcoming elections. Union Home Minister Amit Shah presided over a meeting with state leaders on July 5, outlining the party’s election strategy.
On July 7, the party named senior leader Om Mathur, who oversees the party’s operations in Chhattisgarh, as the election manager for the state. Concurrently, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has been appointed as joint manager for the Chhattisgarh Assembly polls.
Yesterday, BJP President J P Nadda appointed Chhattisgarh’s Vishnudeo Sai and Dharamlal Kaushik to the party’s national executive body, further bolstering the state’s representation at the highest levels of the BJP.
