Senior BJP leader and Union Minister Rajnath Singh will head the party’s “sankalp patra” (manifesto) committee and his Cabinet colleague Arun Jaitley its publicity wing for the Lok Sabha election as its president Amit Shah on Sunday announced formation of 17 groups in preparation for the poll.

Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Thawarchand Gehlot, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Piyush Goyal, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, K.J. Alphons and Kiren Rijiju, and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan are the other members of the 20-person committee tasked with preparing the party manifesto, a statement said. Mr. Jaitley too will be a member of this committee.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari will head a 17-member committee to reach out to social and volunteer organisations while his Cabinet colleague Sushma Swaraj will preside over a group that will produce literature for the polls. Mr. Prasad will head the party’s media group while Union Minister Prakash Javadekar will lead the wing which will organise meetings of intellectuals.

The election is expected to be held in April-May.

A committee will deal with “pravas” (tour) of party leaders, another with social media while a third group, whose 13 members include party general secretary Saroj Pandey, will reach out to beneficiaries of various government schemes, the statement said.

Social media committee

BJP vice-president Shyam Jaju and its information technology wing in-charge Amit Malviya are in the 13-member social media committee.

The publicity wing members include Union ministers Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Mahesh Sharma, party general secretary Anil Jain, its Rajya Sabha MP and businessman Rajeev Chandrasekhar besides Goyal.