What a coincidence: Union cabinet, BJP’s parliamentary board retain 5 old members, including PM Modi
India Today
When we compare the party’s parliamentary board and the cabinet ministers in the Modi government, there is a coincidence that on the parliamentary board too, only five old members have been retained, including the prime minister.
BJP president JP Nadda on August 17 brought in a major organisational rejig to the party’s parliamentary board. The 11-member board, which is the BJP’s top decision-making body, saw some big names like Union minister and former party president Nitin Gadkari and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan being dropped, including, along with some surprise additions.
Among the six new inductions are Telangana BJP leader and Other Backward Classes (OBC) Morcha chief K Laxman, former IPS officer Iqbal Singh Lalpura from Punjab, Sudha Yadav from Haryana, former Union minister Satyanarayan Jatiya from Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka former CM BS Yediyurappa and former Assam CM and Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal.
Other members include Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP national president JP Nadda and National General Secretary BL Santhosh.
Union Minister Gadkari’s exclusion is particularly significant as he is a former party president, and the other two former presidents - Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh - continue to be members. With the exclusion of Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the new board has no sitting chief minister.
Amit Shah, then party president, had constituted the parliamentary board on August 26, 2014. The only members on the reorganised panel are PM Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and the party’s national president, JP Nadda.
BL Santhosh joined the board after he was appointed the party’s general secretary (organisation). The others who made it to the board when it was constituted included Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj , Ananth Kumar and former Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, Karnataka Governor Thawarchand Gehlot, Nitin Gadkari and Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
When we compare the party’s parliamentary board and the cabinet ministers in the Modi government, there is a coincidence that on the parliamentary board too, only five old members have been retained, including the prime minister.
