Union Ministers Smriti Irani and Najma Heptullah and actress-turned-BJP MP from Mathura Hema Malini were dropped from the BJP National Executive as party president Amit Shah reconstituted it by inducting new members like Suresh Prabhu and Birender Singh, both Ministers at the Centre. Senior party leader Subramanian Swamy also finds a place in the top panel.
Former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha who vacated his lok Sabha seat, Hazaribagh, for his son Jayant Sinha, now Minister of State for Finance, has got a place in the team. Union Ministers VK Singh, Rao Inderjit Singh were also included as members in the 111-member National Executive. The party’s Rajya Sabha MP Chandan Mitra and Delhi lok Sabha MP and Dalit face Udit Raj have been included in the top decision-making body. Delhi BJP leaders Jagdish Mukhi, Vijay Jolly and Ramesh Bidhuri have also been excluded from the new executive.
Twenty seven other leaders, including incumbent Chief Ministers, Deputy-CMs and former CMs of BJP are on the panel as Permanent Invitees, while 40 others are Special Invitees. The reconstituted National Executive is expected to meet in the first week of April in Bengaluru with Prime Minister Modi in attendance.
Shah has retained all top leaders including Narendra Modi, AB Vajpayee, lK Advani, MM Joshi and senior Ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Venkaiah Naidu as Members. Among those dropped from the panel include former Defence Minister Jaswant Singh’s son Manvendra Singh from Rajasthan. Party MP Dushyant Singh, son of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, is in the panel
Former Amritsar, MP and cricketor Navjot Singh Sidhu, who vacated his Amritsar seat for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, and Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh’s parliamentarian son Rajveer Singh have entered the panel. Another former cricket opener Chetan Chauhan, Union Minister and popular film singer Babul Supriyo from West Bengal and actress-turned-MP Kirron Kher have been retained in the category of Special Invitees. Film actor of yesteryears Suresh Oberoi has also made it to the list of Special Invitees.
Sultanpur MP Varun Gandhi, whom Shah dropped as the national general secretary, has been retained in the top panel that also includes the likes of Yogi Adityanath and Sadhvi Nirajna Jyoti. Varun’s mother and Union Minister Maneka Gandhi has been retained in the panel. Rural Development Minister Birender Singh who had quit the Congress and joined the BJP before the Haryana Assembly elections late last year made it to the list.
All the eight Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled States and two Deputy Chief Ministers, including that of Jammu & Kashmir where the party shares power with the PDP, besides 24 former Chief Ministers and three former Deputy Chief Ministers have been made Permanent Invitees to the executive.
Among those who are part of the new national body include Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari, Ananth Kumar, Thawarchand Gehlot, Jagat P Nadda, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Kalraj Mishra, Narendra Singh Tomar, Harsh Vardhan, Bandaru Dattatreya and Radha Mohan Singh.
Other prominent leaders inducted include Vinay Katiyar, CP Thakur, Jual Oram, SS Ahluwalia, Vijay K Malhotra, besides Hukumdev Narayan Singh, l Ganesan, lalji Tandon, O Rajgopal, Tathagat Roy and Gulab Chand Katariya Others included are leaders from Bihar Rameshwar Chaurasiya, former Delhi mayor Aarti Mehra former Union Minister Harmohan Dhawan from Chandigarh. Some of the prominent leaders who have been dropped by Shah include Satyanarayan Jatiya, Ramen Deka, Maya Singh and Ashok Pradhan.
Some others excluded are Arun Singh, who is related to Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Sidharth Nath Singh, Nalin Kohli and Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, who are office bearers, and Shaina NC, a prominent Mumbai designer.
Rajya Sabha MP and businessman Ajai Sancheti and lalita Kumar Manglam, who has now become Chairperson of National Commission for Women, have also been excluded. Ministers Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Dharmendra Pradhan, Rajeev Pratap Rudy, Prakash Javadekar, (Gen) VK Singh, Suresh Prabhu, Piyush Goyal, Pon Radhakrishnan and Mahesh Sharma and Nirmala Sitharaman form part of the new executive.