Rajnath trims core poll panel size to 7

NEW DELHI: Realising that his decision to form a large, 19-member panel to finalise his party���s strategy for the coming round of electoral battles was not really working, BJP president Rajnath Singh on Sunday shortened the list to set up a seven-member core committee to prepare his party���s roadmap.

Mr Singh, at the same time, named the ���prabharis��� (in-charge) for steering the party���s preparations in the next round of Assembly polls. The BJP president rewarded his party colleague, Arun Jaitley, who had shepherded the saffron outfit���s march towards the No. 1 position in Karnataka in the 2004 Assembly polls, by anointing him as the ���prabhari��� for the state once again.

In the previous Assembly polls held in the state, the BJP had overtaken the Congress as the largest party, bagging 79 of the 224 Assembly constituencies. The Congress finished runners-up, winning 65 seats while the JD(S) finished with a tally of 58. The BJP���s alliance partner, the JD(U), romped home in five constituencies.

Former BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu has been put in-charge of the party���s election-management exercise in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan while party spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad has been rewarded for his success in Uttarakhand by being asked to lead the campaign in a bigger, more crucial state ��� Chhattisgarh.

The prabharis for the other election bound-states, including Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir, according to party sources, will be named later.

The core committee for finalising the BJP���s campaign strategy for the next Lok Sabha polls will be headed by Mr Naidu, while Mr Ananth Kumar has been made its secretary. It will include Ms Sushma Swaraj, Mr Arun Jaitley, Mr Jaswant Singh, Mr Murli Manohar Joshi and Mr Ram Lal.