Sadananda Gowda appointed vice-president of national BJP

Daijiworld Media Network
With PTI Inputs

New Delhi, Mar 31: In a news that has brought much cheer to the supporters of D V Sadananda Gowda, the former Karnataka chief minister was on Sunday March 31 given the post of vice-president of national BJP.

Gowda had also earlier been in the race for the post of state president of BJP, which ultimately went to Prahlad Joshi.

BJP president Rajnath Singh's new team, appointed on Sunday, has 12 vice-presidents, 10 general secretaries, 15 secretaries and seven spokespersons, besides a 12-member Central Parliamentary Board, a 19-member Central Election Committee and a five-member Central Disciplinary Committee.

Meanwhile, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi appears set for a bigger role at the national level in BJP ahead of the next Lok Sabha polls with the party re-inducting him into the central parliamentary board, its top decision-making body.

62-year-old Modi is the only serving chief minister to be included in the parliamentary board by BJP president Rajnath Singh, who announced his new 76-member team on Sunday to steer the party into the next general elections.

Modi comes back to the party's top body after a gap of six years after having been removed from the board by Singh during his previous tenure as party president, ending speculation over the chief minister's future role at the national level in BJP.

Modi, who has been projected by a section within BJP as the party's prime ministerial candidate, has also been included in BJP's Central Election Committee, headed by Singh.

Among the new faces in Singh's team are former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti and Modi's confidant Amit Shah who have been made vice-president and general secretary respectively. Pilibhit MP Varun Gandhi has also been elevated as the party's general secretary.

Party's senior leader and former finance minister Yashwant Sinha has not found a place in Singh's team. Among those who have been dropped include Najma Heptulla, Hema Malini and Shanta Kumar as vice-presidents and Vasundhara Raje as general secretary.

Smriti Irani, who is a Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat and considered close to Modi, has also been promoted as vice-president.

Rajiv Pratap Rudy has been elevated as general secretary.

Durg MP Saroj Pandey has been made the new president of BJP Mahila Morcha, while Anurag Thakur continues as Yuva Morcha president in the new team.

While Prakash Javadekar, Shahnawaz Hussain and Nirmala Sitharaman will continue as spokespersons, the new additions are Vijay Sonkar Shashtri, Sudhanshu Trivedi, Meenakshi Lekhi and Capt Abhimanyu.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, who is BJP's deputy leader in Rajya Sabha, has been dropped as the chief spokesperson of the party.

Poonam Mahajan, daughter of late party leader Pramod Mahajan, has found a place in Singh's team and has been made a secretary, while Punjab's former health minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla is also a new inclusion and has been given the post of vice-president.

SS Ahluwalia, who was earlier BJP's deputy leader in Rajya Sabha, will be a vice-president.

The new BJP team, which has adequate representation of women, includes tribal face Jual Urao as vice-president and Luise Marandi from Jharkhand as secretary.

The 12-member Central Parliamentary Board headed by Singh has top party leaders Atal Behari Vajpayee, L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, M Venkaiah Naidu, Nitin Gadkari, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Ananth Kumar, Thawar Chand Gehlot and Ram Lal in it, besides Modi who was inducted on Sunday.

All these top leaders alongwith Gopinath Munde, Jual Oran, Shahnawaz Hussain, Vinay Katiyar, J P Nadda and Dr Harshwardhan are part of the party's Central Election Committee. Mahila Morcha chief Saroj Pandey is the ex-officio member of this committee.

The new vice-presidents also include Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, C P Thakur, Balbir Punj, Satpal Malik, Prabhat Jha, Bijyo Chakravarti and Kiran Maheshwari, while the other general secretaries are Ananth Kumar, Thawar Chand Gehlot, J P Nadda, Dharmendra Pradhan, Tapir Gao, Murlidhar Rao and Ram Lal, who will continue as organising secretary of the party.

Karnataka election will test BJP's new team: Congress

New Delhi, Mar 31 (IANS): The Congress party Sunday said the Karnataka assembly elections in May would be the "first test" for the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) new team.

"This is BJP's internal matter and I won't comment on it. The 2014 general elections are far. Karnataka is the first test for the team," said Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi.

Karnataka polls are scheduled for May 5.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has made a comeback in the parliamentary board of the BJP, which announced its new team that will lead the party in the next general elections.