No, PM Modi, Rajnath Singh Did Not Recently Join BJP’s Margdarshak Mandal

PM Modi and Rajnath Singh have been part of the mentor group since its inception in 2014.

Sharing a screenshot of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) website, the X (formerly Twitter) account of Indian National Congress' (INC) Kerala wing claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh recently joined the party's Margdarshak Mandal.

(Archives of more claims can be seen here and here.)

Is it true?: No. Both leaders have been part of the body since 2014, when the Margdarshak Mandal was first formed after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

How did we find out?: Using 'BJP Margdarshak Mandal' as keywords, we looked for older news reports about the body.

• The search led us to a Business Standard report dated 27 August 2014, which mentioned that veteran BJP leaders LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi had been removed from the party's top bodies.

• It added that the two leaders, along with an "ailing" former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, would instead be a part of a newly formed five-member mentor group called the Margdarshak Mandal.

• The report mentioned that PM Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh were also a part of this group.

• Using the group's name as a keyword, we looked for official announcements on the BJP's website.

• A press release published on 28 August 2014 mentioned that the then-National President Amit Shah had selected senior BJP members Atal Bihar Vajpayee, Narendra Modi, Lal Krishna Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, and Rajnath Singh to be a part of the Margdarshak Mandal.

• A similar keyword search on X led us to a 2014 post by India Today, which shared the same list of five leaders as members of the Margdarshak Mandal.

Narendra Modi, AB Vajpayee, LK Advani, MM Joshi & Rajnath Singh in BJP Parliamentary Board's Margdarshak Mandal.http://t.co/oPJOPK45bK

— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) August 26, 2014

• An archived version of the Margdarshak Mandal's page, dated 9 February 2022, showed four of the five leaders as members, including PM Modi and Singh, but excluding Vajpayee, who passed away in 2018.

Conclusion: PM Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh did not recently join the Margdarshak Mandal. They have been a part of the group since its inception in 2014.

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