Published 16:24 IST, September 26th 2020
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 the list of new National office bearers of the party - his team since taking charge in Jan
Ahead of Bihar polls, BJP president J P Nadda, on Saturday, released the list of new National office bearers of the 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 the new BJP Yuva Morcha chief while late Deputy CM Gopinath Munde's daughter Pankaja Munde has been made national secretary. The BJP has also reshuffled its national spokespersons - dropping leaders G V.L Narasimha Rao and Meenakshi Lekhi. One of the biggest change is that Ram Madhav has been replaced with Punjab's Tarun Chugh as General Secretary. This is the first time Nadda has rejigged the team, since taking over as party president from Amit Shah in January.
BJP's new national team
Maintaining more or less the same team as Shah, Nadda has reshuffled key players among states. Ahead of the 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 others 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.
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. Other 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 the seat-sharing.
Kailash Vijaywargiya - credited with the party's landslide victory in Haryana, is currently the election in-charge of West Bengal. Shah had set a target of winning 22 of the 42 seats in the state ahead of the Lok Sabha - which was achieved as BJP won 18 seats in the 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 the 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 the BJP in 2009, was in charge of strengthening the party's presence in the south prior to the 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 managed election rallies held by PM Modi and booth management.
Wishing the new team, PM Modi tweeted:
Updated 17:38 IST, September 26th 2020