INDIA: Bharatiya Janata Party National President JP Nadda has announced the new BJP Parliamentary Board. Big names like Nitin Gadkari, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Yogi Adityanath are not included in the committee.
Union minister Nitin Gadkari has been sacked from the BJP’s top decision-making body in an organisational reshuffle that saw leaders like Devendra Fadnavis and BS Yediyurappa score points after recent setbacks.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who led the BJP to record re-election in the state, is a surprise exclusion after much speculation that he would be rewarded with a seat at the decision-making table.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has been included in the party’s parliamentary committee, which now has four new faces.
The Parliamentary Board Committee is the apex body of the BJP and decides on Chief Ministers, Heads of State and other major decisions.
Yediyurappa resigned as Chief Minister last year amid corruption allegations. At 77, he is well past the party’s unwritten age of 75. Sources say the influential politician has been unhappy for some time and the party wanted to pacify him.
The biggest surprise in this reshuffle is the omission of Nitin Gadkari from such an important committee. Gadkari is one of the most senior ministers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, is a former BJP chief and the party has traditionally kept its former presidents in the decision-making process.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was also dismissed. This is a huge blow for the politician who has served as Chief Minister for 20 years. Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, also a former BJP chief, rejoined the Parliamentary Board.
Former Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who agreed to vacate the seat of Himanta Biswa Sarma after the BJP was re-elected in the state, has been appointed to both the Parliamentary Board and the Central Election Commission.
Devendra Fadnavis was also included in the election committee, a big boost after he was forced to accept a demotion to the rank of deputy chief minister when the BJP came to power in Maharashtra with Shiv Sena rebel Eknath Shinde.
The party’s new parliamentary board, saw four new faces, signalling a generational and major paradigm shift in the highest tiers of the party in the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah reign.
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