In BJP rejig, Ram Madhav, others replaced; Tejasvi Surya promoted
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday announced that it would replace senior leaders like Ram Madhav with fresh faces in a reshuffle of party posts. Other leaders who have been replaced as general secretaries are P Muralidhar Rao, Anil Jain, and Saroj Pandey. Meanwhile, Tejasvi Surya has been made the new chief of the youth wing. Here are more details on the development.
Vasundhara, Raman Singh, Jay Panda chosen as party's vice presidents
Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, along with ex-Chief Minister of Chattisgarh Raman Singh and Jay Panda, have been appointed as party vice presidents. NT Rama Rao's daughter Purandeswari and MP from Assam's Mangaldoi, Dilip Saikia have been appointed as new general secretaries. Tarun Chugh, Dushyant Kumar Gautam, and CT Ravi have also been elected as new general secretaries.
Radha Mohan Singh, Mukul Roy appointed national VPs
Radha Mohan Singh, Mukul Roy, Rekha Verma, Annapurna Devi, Bharti Shiyal, DK Aruna, M Chuba Ao, AP Abdullakutty have also been appointed national vice presidents in the reshuffle. Additionally, K Laxman has been made the head of the OBC (Other Backward Classes) Morcha. Jamal Siddiqui is the new chief of the minority wing, while Lal Singh Arya the new head of SC Morcha.
Tejasvi Surya replaces Poonam Mahajan as youth wing chief
Further, senior leaders Uma Bharti, Prabhat Jha, OP Mathur, Renu Devi, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Avinash Rai Khanna and Shyam Jaju have been dropped from the vice-presidents' list. Tejasvi Surya, a young MP from Karnataka, has been elected as the president of the party's young wing, the Yuva Morcha. He has replaced Poonam Mahajan in order to become the new chief.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore new spokespersons
The saffron party has also increased the number of national spokespersons to 23, with MP Anil Baluni retaining the position of media in-charge and also elevated as the chief spokesperson. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Sanju Verma, Iqbal Singh Lalpura, Aparajita Sarangi, Heena Gavit, M Kikon, Nupur Sharma, Raju Bisht and KK Sharma have been named the new spokespersons for the BJP.
Despite Swamy's threat, Amit Malviya remains head of IT cell
Notably, Amit Malviya has been retained as the in-charge of the party's national IT and social media cell. It should be recalled that earlier this month, senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had given an ultimatum to the party seeking the removal of Malviya from the post. He had claimed that the BJP IT cell had "gone rogue."
PM Modi congratulated the new team
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated those selected in the team. He tweeted, "Congratulations and best wishes to the new team. I am confident they will uphold the glorious tradition of our party of serving the people of India selflessly and with dedication." "May they work hard to empower the poor and marginalized (sic)," PM Modi added.
You can check PM Modi's tweet here
The reshuffle comes ahead of crucial Bihar polls
The reshuffle has come ahead of the crucial Assembly polls in Bihar, where the BJP is contesting in a coalition with CM Nitish Kumar's JD(U). The elections will be held in three phases during October-November, and the results will be declared on November 10.
