New Delhi:
Ending all ambiguity on his projection as the party's face for 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Narendra Modi will be formally named BJP's prime ministerial candidate by July end. The formal announcement will set the stage for a direct contest between the Gujarat chief minister and Congress scion Rahul Gandhi.
The party's parliamentary board will make an announcement to this effect, a person familiar with the matter said, adding that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the party's ideological mentor, had conveyed its backing for Modi to senior BJP leaders LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi.
Earlier, on Tuesday, BJP spokesperson Ananth Kumar said the different committees to be formed will take care of the party's election manifesto, parliamentary election meetings, "chargesheet" against UPA, development agenda and other things.
He said the Parliamentary Board has authorised party chief Rajnath Singh and poll campaign panel chief Narendra Modi to form these after consultations with senior party leaders.
The BJP Parliamentary Board discussed the poll strategy at Sunday's meeting, where it decided that the party will go ahead with good governance and development as its major poll planks.
On taking on the Congress in elections, the party decided to attack it on three issues of corruption, economic crisis and price rise, and its failure on all other fronts.
