Sushma Swaraj to head BJP committee for Lok Sabha polls

With an eye on the coming Lok Sabha elections, Bharatiya Janata Party nominee for prime ministership Lal Kishenchand Advani has appointed a 19-member Central Election Management Committee with Sushma Swaraj as its convener.

The committee will hold talks with various political parties to broad base the National Democratic Alliance by talking to the political parties that are willing to share the platform.

Addressing her first press conference in her new role, Swaraj said that Advani had called a meeting of the leaders of the party, including Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, for consultations. "During the meeting, it was decided that a five-member committee would chalk out a road map for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections," Swaraj said.

"The committee will comprise of Arun Shourie, Arun Jaitely, Ananth Kumar, Vinay Sahashra Budhe and myself. We met and prepared a report, which was handed over to party president Rajnathji and Advaniji. A 19-member election management committee was also formulated," she said.

The committee will hold a meeting on January 15 under the chairmanship of party president Rajnath Singh. Other members of the committee include Jaswant Singh, Dr M M Joshi, M Venkaiah Naidu, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, Bal Apte, Arun Jaitley, Ananth Kumar, Gopinath Munde, Thawarchand Gehlot, Vinay Katiyar, Yashwant Sinha, Ramlal, M A Naqvi, Arun Shourie, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Balbir Punj and Vinay Saharsha Budhe. Swaraj said that George Fernandes would continue to be a leader in the NDA.

"Our strategy would be to retain Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh, and also to get couple of states from the Congress. As far as I am concerned, Mamata Banerjee has not said that she is not in the NDA. I will write to her and even speak to her over the phone. If she tells me that she is going alone, then so be it. We would also be talking to smaller parties, including those who have a single MP, and try to bring them within the fold," she said.

When asked why Modi was kept out of the 19-member committee, Swaraj argued that none of the chief ministers had been included, but they would be present as special invitees.

She denied that Advani had included only those considered to be closer to him in the committee. "This is a theory formulated by the media," she said.