Vajpayee, Advani, Joshi out of BJP’s top body
NEW DELHI : Bharatiya Janata Party under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems to be doing a complete overhaul of the ruling party, with party patriarchs Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani and senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi being dropped from its Parliamentary Board, considered to be the highest decision-making body, on Tuesday.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, under whose leadership the party registered its third consecutive victory in the state, has been rewarded with a membership in the party’s parliamentary board. BJP national general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP JP Nadda has also been included in the party’s highest decision-making body.The two have also been included in BJP’s Central Election Committee, which decides on the party candidates to be fielded in elections.
Here’s the list of 12 members of the BJP Parliamentary Board: Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Arun Jailtey, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari, Venkaiah Naidu, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Thawarchand Gehlotm, Ananth Kumar, JP Nadda and Ramlal.
The party has created a body named ‘Margdarshak Mandal’ (guiding group), which would include Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, AB Vajpayee, LK Advani and MM Joshi.Earlier, both Advani and Joshi were denied Cabinet berths in the Modi Cabinet.The new BJP President Amit Shah initiated the changes after consultations with top BJP leaders and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Vajpayee, who had faded away from public life since about a decade back due to his ill health, had however been retained as NDA Chairman. Advani was the Working Chairman of NDA before the Mori era.The Central Election Committee was also reconstituted, with firebrand leader from Uttar Pradesh Vinay Katiyar being dropped.Former BJP Mahila Morcha President Saroj Pandey, who was an ex-officio member of this Committee, has been replaced with Vijaya Rahatkar the new Mahila Morcha chief who was earlier the former Aurangabad Mayor.Jual Oram, a Tribal face and union Tribal Affairs Minister, marks his entry into the 15-member body.
The other members of the CEC are Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu, Nitin Gadkari, Ananth Kumar, Thawarchand Gehlot, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Jagat Prakash Nadda, Ramlal and Shahnawaz Hussain besides Rahatkar. BJP under the leadership of Modi won 282 Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 General Elections.
