New Delhi, January 6
BJP President M Venkaiah Naidu today formally constituted the election management and campaign committee for Himachal Pradesh, which will be headed by Union Rural Development Minister Shanta Kumar.

The BJP MP from Mandi, Mr Maheshwar Singh, will be the co-convener.

Other members of the committee are Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, state unit president Jai Kishan Sharma, vice-president Chander Mohan Thakur, organising secretary Ram Sarup Sharma, party general-secretary Kirpal Parmar, Lok Sabha MP from Hamirpur Suresh Chandel, Rajya Sabha MP Suresh Bharadwaj, HPBJYM president Vikram Singh Thakur, HPMM president Veena Thakur, president state Scheduled Caste Morcha Virendra Kashyap and president of state Kisan Morcha Subhash Thakur.

All-India General Secretary and chief spokesperson for the BJP central office Arun Jaitley, Delhi BJP unit President Madal Lal Khurana and “Prabhari” of Himachal Pradesh O. P. Kohli will be special invitees.

According to party sources, the composition of the campaign committee was done during the five-day visit of Mr Jaitley to the hill state last week and the final decision was taken by Mr Venkaiah Naidu here after consultation with Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani.

The party has already launched a major exercise to identify candidates for the coming Assembly poll and is likely to finalise a few names as early as the second half of this month, the sources said.

Meanwhile, according to top party sources, the Himachal unit has demanded a maximum number of public meetings to be addressed by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi who led the BJP to victory in Gujarat.

According to the preliminary schedule of public meeting which is yet to be cleared by the central office of the BJP, Mr Modi would address 20 meetings, Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani 18 and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee a couple of them during the last leg of the campaign.

Mr Naidu and Mr Jaitley will also extensively tour the state, the sources said, adding that a number of other top Central leaders will also address the meetings.