BJP president J.P. Nadda on Saturday announced his new team of office-bearers which combined big inclusions like the appointment of first-term MP Tejasvi Surya as chief of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) to the exclusion of general secretaries like Ram Madhav, P. Muralidhar Rao, Saroj Pande and Anil Jain, in a significant rejig. The list had been anticipated since Mr. Nadda took over as party chief in January this year, and is now being seen in conjunction with a possible Cabinet expansion in the next few weeks.
The biggest changes were seen in the most significant group of office-bearers — general secretaries. Four general secretaries from former president and current Home Minister Amit Shah’s team handling important States were dropped. They are Ram Madhav who was in charge of Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, P. Muralidhar Rao who handled the southern States and Rajasthan, Saroj Pande who handled Maharashtra and Anil Jain who handled Haryana among other States. Senior BJP sources say a couple of them may find space in the Cabinet expansion.
If the exclusions were interesting, the inclusions were interesting too. Dilip Saikia, all of 47 years and a first-term MP from Mangaldoi in Assam, was made general secretary, a big promotion for him, as was C.T. Ravi, MLA from Karnataka. Former Union Minister in the Manmohan Singh government, D. Purandeswari from Andhra Pradesh, made a comeback into the limelight as general secretary. With D. Aruna as vice-president and K. Laxman as OBC Morcha chief, both from Telangana, the two States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana had been given decent prominence in the team.
Mixed bag in poll going States
It seemed to be a mixed bag for poll-going West Bengal and Tamil Nadu (both in 2021). No name from Tamil Nadu was included in the list whereas for West Bengal, the party high command sent a clear message that Mukul Roy, appointed vice-president, would be calling the shots in the State unit. Former West Bengal BJP chief Rahul Sinha, who had been included national secretary earlier, was dropped from the list altogether, while Anupam Hazra, a former Trinamool Congress MP from Bolpur recruited into the BJP by Mr. Roy, was appointed national secretary.
The northeastern States were given heavy representation. M. Chuba Ao from Nagaland was made national vice-president and Mmhonlumo Kikon, MLA from Nagaland, had been appointed one of the national spokespersons. This reflects not just the party’s expansion in these areas but also the intention to stay the course.
Maharashtra balancing act
A significant message in the list was for the faction-ridden Maharashtra unit. With the appointment of former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis as a co-incharge for Bihar during the polls, leaders with whom he does not share very comfortable equations — former State Minister Vinod Tawde and Pankaja Munde had been appointed national secretaries. It is a balancing act that says a lot about the situation in the State unit.
Finally, a treasurer, actually two
The list included an appointee to a post that had remained empty in name since Piyush Goyal became Union Minister in 2014, that of treasurer. Rajesh Agarwal, long-time MLA from Bareilly and former Finance Minister in U.P., had been made treasurer, and Sudhir Gupta, MP from Mandsaur in Mandhya Pradesh appointed co-treasurer.
With all these changes, there were some significant continuations too — Amit Malviya and Anil Baluni both had been continued in their respective roles as social media and media cell in-charge. The list will be expanded in the coming weeks by appointments to other cells and morchas.
