Lok Sabha elections: BJP forms election manifesto panel under minister Rajnath Singh

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has formed a committee to focus on the election manifesto for the Lok Sabha with minister Rajnath Singh as its chairperson. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has been appointed as the convener of the election manifesto panel, while minister Piyush Goyal will be the co-convener.

Additionally, the 27-member committee includes Chief Ministers from four states. The prominent leaders in the list are: Vasundhara Raje, Smriti Irani, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Dharmendra Pradhan, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Arjun Munda and others.

The BJP has so far released seven candidate list for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The seventh list mentioned the names of two candidates nominated from Maharashtra's Amravati and Chitradurga constituency of Karnataka.

The party's first list of 195 candidates was announced on March 2, featuring 34 central government ministers, including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, and Smriti Irani. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest the Varanasi seat in Uttar Pradesh.

On March 13, the BJP released its second candidate list, which included 72 more candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, among them Anurag Thakur, Manohar Lal Khattar, Piyush Goyal, and Anil Baluni.

The third list, comprising nine candidates, was announced on March 21. According to this list, Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Coimbatore, and Union Minister L Murugan will contest from Nilgiris.

On March 22, the BJP released its fourth list of 15 candidates, followed by the fifth list on March 25, which included 111 candidates, including actors Kangana Ranaut and Arun Govil.

Lok Sabha elections 2024 will be a seven-phase political battle that will elect a new union government. With 543 parliamentary constituencies nationwide, the Election Commission has decided to organise the polls in seven stages, beginning April 19.

While some states and Union territories will go to polls in a single phase, larger states with a significant number of constituencies will be up for elections in multiple phases to ensure a smooth conduct of polls.