Lok Sabha Polls: Rajnath Singh to lead BJP’s Election Manifesto Committee

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has unveiled its Election Manifesto Committee for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. BJP president JP Nadda revealed the 27-member committee, with defence minister and former BJP chief Rajnath Singh appointed as its head. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Union Minister Piyush Goyal will serve as convenor and co-convenors, respectively. The committee includes members such as Arjun Munda, Bhupender Yadav, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Kiren Rijiju, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Dharmendra Pradhan, and Bhupender Patel. Also included are Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, Chhattisgarh CM Vishnu Deo Sai, and Madhya Pradesh CM Mohan Yadav. Additionally, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Vasundhara Raje, Smriti Irani, Jual Oram, Ravishankar Prasad, Sushil Modi, Keshav Prasad Maurya, Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Vinod Tawde, Radha Mohan Das Agarwal, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, OP Dhankar, Anil Antony, and Tariq Mansoor are part of the committee.

In related news, the BJP has announced its candidates for the by-elections in the Gandey Assembly seat of Jharkhand and the Bagidora Assembly seat in Rajasthan. Dilip Kumar Verma will contest from the Gandey Assembly, while Subhash Tamboliya has been nominated for the Bagidora Assembly in Rajasthan. The bypoll for the Bagidora Assembly in Rajasthan is scheduled for April 26, while the Gandey Assembly bypoll will take place on May 20. Additionally, bypolls for 26 Assembly seats will coincide with the Lok Sabha polls, which will be held in seven phases starting from April 19. Nearly 96.8 crore eligible voters are expected to cast their votes at over 12 lakh polling stations. The election for 543 Lok Sabha seats will conclude on June 4.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP secured 282 seats, while the Indian National Congress (INC) won 44 seats. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP further increased its tally, winning 303 seats, while the INC managed to secure only 52 seats.