The much-awaited changes in the team of BJP President JP Nadda, who has taken over the reins of the party from Amit Shah, are expected to be effected soon even as the Union cabinet too is required to fill vacancies existing on account of the demise of top party leaders including Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and Ananth Kumar.
The sudden emergence of the coronavirus pandemic had thwarted the meeting of the party’s National Council, the top policy making body, to approve Nadd’s elevation from working president to the full-time chief of the BJP as also the reshuffle in the party and the Union Cabinet, according to sources.
A major reconstitution of the party’s office bearers was awaited even during the tenure of Shah but that did not happen as a highly centralised mechanism did not apparently require more hands as many assembly polls and subsequently the 2019 Lok Sabha polls were contested under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah.
The untimely passing away of central Ministers Jaitley, Swaraj, Kumar and the elevation of M Venkaiah Naidu, another former Minister, to the Constitutional post of Vice President has created slots in the Modi Cabinet. Against this backdrop, a few hands from the party may be shifted to the government, they said.
The Parliamentary Board of the BJP, the highest decision making body, too would need fresh inductions in view of the absence of the three veterans. Swaraj, the only woman representative in the Board, could have a replacement with another woman party leader.