No formal election team in place for Modi

The BJP is unlikely to announce a formal national campaign committee, of which Gujarat CM Narendra Modi was made chairman at the party’s recent Goa conclave. Vikas Pathak reports.

The BJP is unlikely to announce a formal national campaign committee, of which Gujarat CM Narendra Modi was made chairman at the party’s recent Goa conclave.

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Rather, Modi and party chief Rajnath Singh are setting up sub-committees to assign campaign work “in consultation with the Parliamentary Board”, the top decision-making body of the BJP.

“Once in place and functioning, these sub-committees will de facto comprise the national campaign committee,” a senior BJP leader told HT.

In other words, rather than a national committee spawning sub-committees, the campaign will be organised the other way round, with the sub-committees guided by Modi and Singh becoming the de facto national campaign committee.

The party’s Parliamentary Board – of which Modi too is a member – will meet again on July 18 at 3 pm.

The idea, sources say, is not to undermine Modi but to give the exercise a participatory look, rather than making it seem that a Team Modi – separate from the party – is shaping up.