To refurbish the party’s image in the face of mounting Opposition attacks, BJP president Amit Shah on Monday constituted 18 new departments relating to good governance and for better coordination between the States and the central office and with media.
However, in assigning new roles in the restructured set-up, he relied heavily on his trusted lieutenants.
Party vice-president Vinay Sahastrabudhe will run the department on good governance, and Centre and States programmes coordination, along with West Bengal coordinator Siddharth Nath Singh, Delhi MP Mahesh Giri and Raj Shekhar.
Mr. Sahastrabudhe will also look after policy research along with the Director of Syama Prasad Mookerjee Foundation, Anirban Ganguly, and Vikhshut of Karnataka.
Rajya Sabha MP and journalist M.J. Akbar will handle the new department of media relations to help media outreach, along with old hand Shrikant Sharma, Mr. Singh, Anil Baluni and Swadesh Verma. Mr. Sharma will continue the task of running the media cell.
