Friends of BJP may get Prasar Bharati seat

NEW DELHI: The board of Prasar Bharti is all set to be reconstituted, and a set of people close the ruling BJP are expected to make it to the body that oversees the All India Radio and Doordarshan.

Notable contenders are Shashi Shekar, the brain behind Niti Central that ran a ground-breaking campaign for Narendra Modi in 2013-2014; BJP star campaigner and bhajan singer Anup Jalota and Atal Bihari Vajpayee's former media advisor Ashok Kumar Tandon. Also, in the race and likely to get selected is former Britannia chief Sunil Alagh, largely seen as a BJP supporter, especially on TV shows.

A list of 12 candidates, which has been accessed by ET, reveals several more names that include Seshadri Chari, former editor of Sangh publication Organiser; Gujarati speaker and columnist Jay Vasavda; actors Kajol, Vikram Gokhale and YN Avinash; journalist Minhaz Merchant and academic Vartika Nanda.

As per the Prasar Bharati Act, the public broadcaster should have six-part time part time members on its board. The current process is the select four directors, who will join Muzzafar Ali and Samir Kumar Barua, both appointed by the previous Congress-led government.

Official sources said the process of security clearance for the names got over recently, and very soon, a committee constituted by Vice President Hamid Ansari with Press Council chairman CK Prasad and Information and Broadcasting Secretary Sunil Arora would announce the names. The government is trying to get all appointments done on the Prasar Bharti board so that the Director General posts of both AIR and Doordarshan lying vacant for three years can be filled up soon, sources said.

Jay Vasavda, who writes on cinema and spirituality, confirmed to ET that he has been approached by the government for being part of the board. “Modiji is a man of ideas and he has delivered his best in Gujarat. His understanding of Indian ethos and how to present it to the rest of the world is very good,” he said. Vasavda, however, said he might have to rethink joining the board as he may not fulfil the condition of being in Delhi for a month.

Official sources said there were two lists prepared by the ministry - one initially of five names, after which seven more were added as officials felt the need to widen the pool for selection of part-time directors. While everything depends on Vice President Ansari's decision, Shashi Sekhar, Tandon, Alagh and Jalota were most likely to make it, said official sources.

Shekar spearheaded the BJP's Mission 272+ Internet-social media campaign for the 2014 parliamentary election to ensure the BJP-led NDA achieved a majority in the Lok Sabha. Jalota, a BJP member since 2004, was a star campaigned for the party in the recent Delhi assembly election.