Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani, who was a BJP vice-president till she joined the Modi government, did not find a place in party president Amit Shah’s re-constituted team of the National Executive on Thursday.
Union Minister Najma Heptulla and film star-turned-politician Hema Malini also were dropped, while Ministers Suresh Prabhu and Birendra Singh were accommodated in the 111-member panel. MPs Yogi Adityanath and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, in the news for their controversial comments, were also included.
Mr. Shah is expected to fill vacancies for office-bearers, including two vice-presidents and five general secretaries, before the three-day meeting of the National Executive in Bengaluru from April 3.
Swamy, Maneka, Sidhu in BJP National Executive
Re-jigging the BJP’s National Executive seven months after he became the party chief, Amit Shah has included former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, senior leaders L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, M. Venkaiah Naidu, Nitin Gadkari and Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Yashwant Sinha, S.S. Ahluwalia and Subramanian Swamy have also been included in the national executive besides the mother-son duo of Menaka Gandhi and Varun Gandhi.
He also re-constituted the list of Permanent and Special Invitees. The earlier panel was formed during Rajnath Singh's tenure as party chief in 2013.
Among the new entrants are Union Ministers Ananth Kumar, Thawarchand Gehlot, J.P. Nadda, Harshvardhan, Dharmendra Pradhan, Prakash Javadekar, Radha Mohan Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, Kiran Rijiju, Mahesh Chandra Sharma, V.K. Singh and Rao Inderjeet Singh.
All the eight chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, two deputy chief ministers, 14 former chief ministers and three ex-deputy chief ministers shall be permanent invitees to the meetings of the National Executive. Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s MP son, Dushyant Singh has also found a place on the panel.
In a major re-shuffle, the BJP President has moved three members from the national executive to the list of 40-member Special Invitees and dropped 10 members. Popular singer-MP Babul Supriyo has been made a special invitee.
Besides, all Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council party leaders, State Presidents, all general secretaries (Organisation) shall be Special Invites to the National Executive. Vinod Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha, Suresh Oberoi and Navjot Singh Sidhu have found a place on the National Executive.
According to BJP sources, the norm is to replace 25 per cent members on the panel and to give representation to states.
