BJP poll duty roster ready, to be revealed today

The BJP is set to formally hand over "functional responsibilities" to its leaders for the 2014 Lok Sabha election on Friday. The delay of one day is being seen as being necessitated by the need to iron out some differences on specifics.Modi holds one-on-one meeting with Advani

The BJP is set to formally hand over "functional responsibilities" to its leaders for the 2014 Lok Sabha election on Friday.

"We are just filling in some blanks and will make a formal announcement on Friday," said a senior BJP leader soon after the party's top decision-making body - the parliamentary board - discussed the issue for more than two hours.

Gujarat chief minister and BJP poll campaign chief, Narendra Modi, was present at the meet along with party patriarch LK Advani and other senior leaders. Later, Modi went to meet Advani and Vajpayee at their residences. Uma Bharti and Sushil Modi came to meet the Gujarat CM.

Sources say not just party general secretaries but also leaders senior than them - which would mean senior leaders who are also in the parliamentary board - will be assigned responsibilities.

The delay of one day is being seen as being necessitated by the need to iron out some differences on specifics.

"The board discussed the political situation in the run-up to polls, the coming Parliament session, the state of the economy and the government's recent FDI cap hikes," said a party leader.

A BJP leader said increasing FDI in telecom from 74% to 100% was nothing more than giving de jure status to a de facto arrangement, as foreign investors could anyway engage Indian dummies to get around the 74% cap.

Party sources alleged the government was under fear of a downgrade of India's credit ratings if it didn't open up the economy further. Regarding the coming Parliament session, a BJP leader said the party would take up the Uttarakhand tragedy, the state of the economy, national security and the "IB-CBI" struggle, and corruption.