Ahead of the Assembly elections in four States, BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday announced the party’s national office-bearers, dropping general secretary Varun Gandhi from his team and including former Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa as vice-president.
The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh presence in the team is strong with the inclusion of former spokesman Ram Madhav as general secretary and Vinay Sahasrbuddhe as vice-president. Three of the eight general secretaries and two of the 11 vice-presidents have RSS backgrounds. All four joint secretaries (organisation) are RSS members and not BJP workers.
A mix of youth and experience, the new team includes 11 vice-presidents, eight general secretaries, 14 secretaries, four joint secretaries (organisation) and 10 spokespersons. , The new spokespersons are Vijay Sonkar Shastri, Lalita Kumaramangalam, Nalin Kohli, Sambit Patra, Anil Baluni and G.V.L. Narasimha Rao.
Significantly, the BJP president has given the highest representation to members from Uttar Pradesh, the State the BJP is vying to win in the next Assembly elections. As the party prepares for elections in Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir, Mr. Shah’s new team shows a strong representation from the States.
While dropping Mr. Gandhi, Mr. Shah has retained general secretaries J.P. Nadda, Murlidhar Rao and Ramlal, who will continue to take care of organisational affairs. Rajeev Pratap Rudy, former party spokesman, has been given a leg-up as general secretary.