Vajpayee, Advani, Joshi moved from Parliamentary Board to Margdarshak Mandal
Taking a major step towards a generational change in the party’s highest decision-making body, BJP president Amit Shah on Tuesday removed Atal Bihari Vajpayee, lK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi from the Parliamentary Board. The “elders” were shifted to a freshly-formed Margdarshak Mandal (Group of mentors), a temporary body with an advisory role.
Party general secretary JP Nadda and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, along with Shah as party president and chairman of the Board, are the new members filling in for the three veterans, who nursed and guided the party in its earlier avatar as “Bharatiya Jan Sangh” since 1951 and BJP after its establishment in 1980.
The five-member Margda-rshak Mandal also includes Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh who are to give company to ailing Vajpayee (89), Advani (86) and Joshi (80). Asked whether the Parliamentary Board or the Mandal would be the final authority in the party, BJP spokesman Syed Shahnawaz Hussain said the Mandal would be “guiding the party.”
Three-time Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and party general secretary and Rajya Sabha member JP Nadda are the new entrants to the BJP Parliamentary Board. Chouhan’s name had figured along with Modi for induction in the Board before the lok Sabha polls. Modi, however, made it to the Board before his name was announced as a consensus Prime Ministerial candidate by then party president Rajnath Singh.
Nadda and Chouhan have also been included in the BJP’s Central Election Committee that decides on the party candidates to be fielded in elections. The 12-member Parliamentary Board chaired by Shah now has Modi, Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu, Nitin Gadkari, Ananth Kumar, Thawar Chand Gehlot, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, JP Nadda and Ramlal as its members.
Shah initiated the changes after consultations with top BJP leaders and the Prime Minister. Vajpayee, who had faded from public life about a decade ago due to ill health, had however been symbolically retained as NDA chairman.
The former Prime Minister has, for long, not been able to communicate and recognise people visiting him. Advani was the working chairman of the NDA before the commencement of the Modi-Shah era. Joshi who had shifted his lok Sabha constituency from Varanasi to Kanpur to make way for Modi, is expected to head the Estimates Committee of Parliament. Significantly, the cut-off age of 75 years, set by Modi, had barred entry of all “seniors” into the Union Cabinet.
The Central Election Committee (CEC), that has the final word on deciding tickets for party candidates, was also reconstituted, with Hindutva leader and former Bajrang Dal chief from Uttar Pradesh Vinay Katiyar being dropped.
Jual Oram, a tribal face from Odisha and Union Tribal Affairs Minister, is a new entry to the key 15-member body. Former BJP Mahila Morcha president Saroj Pandey, who was an ex-officio member of the CEC, has been replaced with Vijaya Rahatkar the new Mahila Morcha chief who was earlier the Aurangabad Mayor.
The other members of the CEC are Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu, Nitin Gadkari, Ananth Kumar, Thawar Chand Gehlot, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, JP Nadda, Ramlal and Shahnawaz Hussain besides Rahatkar. The reconstitution of the Central Disciplinary Committee would also be announced shortly by the party.