New Delhi: Differences among the party brass is apparently delaying the release of the BJP’s much-awaited election manifesto.
The Modi camp was allegedly not happy with the manifesto that had been prepared by the saffron heavyweights, which included Yashwant Sinha, Murli Manohar Joshi and Jaswant Singh, who has since then been expelled from the party.
Sources revealed that the manifesto was being redrafted as Mr Modi’s camp wanted changes to be made on economic issues and parts of his speeches to be included in it.
The party on Thursday, meanwhile, hurriedly released its manifesto for the Northeastern states as the region will go to polls on April 7, the same day when the main manifesto will be released.
Late on Thursday, there was confusion over whether releasing the election manifesto on a poll date would be transgression of the model code of conduct. BJP vice-president, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, claimed that “releasing the manifesto did not fall under the model code of conduct as it was entirely up to the party to decide when and where to release it.”
When asked about the issue, Rajesh Malhotra, media and coordination director of the Election Commission, said, “I don’t know. We have to study the model code of conduct.”
