BJP chief JP Nadda chooses massive new team; full list of BJP national office bearers here

Ahead of Bihar polls, BJP president J P Nadda, on Saturday, released list of new National office bearers of party. While most senior leaders and ex-CMs like - Raman Singh, Vasundhara Raje, Raghubar Das have been retained as state Vice-presidents, several younger leaders have been elevated. Lok Sabha MP Tejasvi Surya has replaced Poonam Mahajan as  new BJP Yuva Morcha chief while late Deputy CM Gopinath Munde's daughter Pankaja Munde has been made national secretary. BJP has also reshuffled its national spokespersons - dropping leaders G V.L Narasimha Rao and Meenakshi Lekhi.  One of biggest change is that Ram Madhav has been replaced with Punjab's Tarun Chugh as General Secretary. This is first time Nadda has rejigged team, since taking over as party president from Amit Shah in January.

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BJP's new national team

Maintaining more or less same team as Shah, Nadda has reshuffled key players among states. Ahead of crucial Madhya Pradesh by-polls, BJP has retained its senior Kailash Vijaywargiya as party General secretary from Madhya Pradesh - in stiff opposition to newly joined Jyotiraditya Scindia. While Nadda has retained seniors like Bhupender Yadav, C.T Ravi, Arun Singh, he has dropped several ors from Shah's team like - Ram Madhav, Murlidhar Rao, Anil Jain have been dropped. Union Minister Prakash Javadekar has been dropped as party national spokesperson, while his cabinet peer Dharmendra Pradhan has been dropped as party general secretary. 

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Main changes from Shah's team

Nadda  - who himself was a core member of Shah's team in 2014 has retained only Bhupender Yadav, Kailash Vijaywargiya and Arun Singh. Or key members like Murlidhar Rao, Anil Jain, Dharmendra Pradhan and Prakash Javadekar have been dropped. Yadav - considered as Shah's trusted lieutenant and in-charge of Bihar elections has played key roles in electoral victories in Rajasthan (2013), Gujarat (2017), Jharkhand (2014) and Uttar Pradesh (2017). He along with ex-CM Devendra Fadnavis are currently campaigning in Bihar, talking with allies to finalize seat-sharing.

Kailash Vijaywargiya - credited with party's landslide victory in Haryana, is currently election in-charge of West Bengal. Shah had set a target of winning 22 of 42 seats in state ahead of Lok Sabha - which was achieved as BJP won 18 seats in Trinamool-ruled states. Moreover, Vijaywargiya successfully brought over  Mamata Banerjee's close lieutenant Mukul Roy - who has been retained by Nadda as Bengal Vice-President. Nadda has also retained Arun Singh - who played a key role in BJP's membership drive during Shah's tenure.

While Pradhan and Javadekar are currently in Modi cabinet, Murlidhar Rao who was key member in Shah's team as General secretary has been dropped from Nadda's team. Rao, who joined BJP in 2009, was in charge of strengning party's presence in south prior to Lok Sabha elections. His peer Anil Jain who has been appointed election in-charge of Chhattisgarh too has been dropped as General Secretary. Jain reportedly mand election rallies held by PM Modi and booth manment.

Wishing new team, PM Modi tweeted:

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