Just 2 weeks left, 70 BJP MPs to cover all seats

To speed up electioneering, the Delhi BJP has decided to rope in 70 MPs to cover all 70 assembly seats in the city with less than two weeks left for elections. A party manifesto for Delhi would be released after Republic Day but candidates will also bring out individual manifestos — to be named ‘minifestos’ — for a few significant seats.

To speed up electioneering, the Delhi BJP has decided to rope in 70 MPs to cover all 70 assembly seats in the city with less than two weeks left for elections.

Apart from this, a party manifesto for Delhi would be released after Republic Day but candidates will also bring out individual manifestos — to be named ‘minifestos’ — for a few significant seats.

The campaigning will get a much-needed boost from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rallies who is expected to address four meetings in south, east, west and northwest parliamentary constituencies between January 29 and February 4.

These decisions were taken at the election management committee of the Delhi BJP on Friday.

“We have requested Modiji to give us time for 4-5 rallies. Once it is finalised, we will decide the venue and make preparations,” said Satish Upadhyay, Delhi BJP chief. He said Padyatras of candidates, including the chief ministerial candidate, will start from Saturday and before January 28, election offices of every assembly segment will be put in place.

“By January 27, we will bring out pamphlets on important issues related to the city,” he added.

Some of the ministers who will campaign include Arun Jaitley, Ananth Kumar, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Dharmendra Pratap, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, M. Venkaiah Naidu, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Sushma Swaraj among others.

MINIFESTOS

According to senior BJP leaders, only a few candidates will bring out individual manifestos, especially on those seats where the issues are too local to be addressed by the general manifesto.

“Some of the areas have problems that are specific to the area only and hence it would be better to have a separate manifesto addressing their problems and concern,” said a senior BJP leader. In 2013, AAP had come up with separate manifestos for each of the 70 constituencies in the city, and Delhi BJP had replicated the model with many candidates coming up with their own manifestos. Union minister Harshvardhan is in charge of the manifesto committee and is finalising it.