Nitin Gadkari and Shivraj Singh Chouhan were dropped from BJP’s highest decision-making body on Wednesday, while former chief ministers BS Yediyurappa and Sarbananda Sonowal were included in the list.
Others on the BJP Parliamentary Board list include JP Nadda, Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, K Laxman, Iqbal Singh Lalpura, Sudha Yadav, Satyanarayan Jatiya and BL Santosh. The party also released a list of members of the BJP Central Election Committee (CEC) that included Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Fadnavis and K Laxman are the two crucial inclusions on the list, hinting at a promotion for the leaders. While BJP OBC Morcha national president Laxman has been trying to gain grounds in Telangana, Fadnavis played a major role in forging an alliance with the Eknath Shinde camp that led to the toppling of Uddhav Thackeray government.
Talking to News18, Laxman said, “People in South India are looking towards PM Modi for developmental work, and I will raise his voice in my state.”
The party has tried to consider the diversity while revamping the board. “There is evidently an emphasis on diversity. Sarbananda Sonowal is from the Northeast, L Laxman and BS Yeddyurappa hail from the South, and Iqbal Singh Lalpura is a Sikh,” sources said.
Sudha Yadav is a self made political leader whose husband was martyred in Kargil. Her inclusion shows the topmost respect to women and families of the armed forces, sources added. They further said that the board shows how the BJP rewards old workers and values the experience of its karyakartas.
“People like BSY, Satya Narayan Jatia, K Laxman have given their lives to the party, building it brick by brick from the start,” sources in the BJP said.
The Parliamentary Board is the governing body of Bharatiya Janata Party that takes day-to-day decisions on behalf of the national executive. The national executive sets up the highest decision-making body consisting of party president and ten other members. The board supervises the activities of the parliamentary and legislative groups of the party. It also guides and regulates all the organisational units below the national executive.
Reacting to the development, NCP leader Clyde Crasto took a jibe. “Nitin Gadkari ji not included in BJP’s Parliamentary Board shows that his stature as an astute politician has grown leaps and bounds. When your calibre and capabilities grow and you pose a challenge to the higher ups the #BJP downsizes you.
