Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha assembly elections, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has reworked its team of central office-bearers on Saturday. BJP president J.P. Nadda announced the new list of 13 vice presidents, and nine general secretaries.
Among the list of names stood out Anil Antony, son of veteran Congress leader A K Antony, who has been brought in as a national secretary. In January this year, Anil had announced his resignaiton from Congress party. His opinions on the BBC documentary, The Modi Question, was not received well with his fellow party members which resulted in his exit.
BJP also brought in Pasmanda Muslim from Uttar Pradesh as one of its vice presidents and also former Telangana unit chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar was named as a national general secretary.
C.T. Ravi, a leader from Karnataka and Dilip Saikia, an MP from Assam was dropped by the BJP. Reportedly, they are expected to contest for the upcoming LS polls.
In order to woo the Pasmanda Muslims, former Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) vice-chancellor Tariq Mansoor, now a BJP MLC in Uttar Pradesh, has been made a vice-president.
Most of the office-bearers have been retained as vice-presidents, general secretaries and secretaries in the new list. There are 13 vice-presidents, nine general secretaries, including B. L. Santhosh as the in-charge of organisation, and 13 secretaries in the list.
Former Union minister Radha Mohan Singh, a Lok Sabha MP from Bihar, has been dropped as a party vice-president. Ahead of the elections this year Saroj Pandey, a Rajya Sabha MP and Lata Usendi, a tribal leader from Chhattisgarh has been made a vice president.
Among the nine general secretaries, Radha Mohan Agrawal, and Surendra Singh Nagar, Rajya Sabha MPs from Uttar Pradesh are on the list. Kamakhya Prasad Tasa, Rajya Sabha MP from Assam is also on the general secretaries list.
Meanwhile, seven members have been retained by the party. With Mansoor brought in, there are two Muslims in the list now. Kerala leader Abdulla Kutty is the another member from the minority community on the list.
However, Ravi was dropped from the position after the recent defeat in the Karnataka polls. The four-term MLA had lost his seat in a close fight in the recently held assembly polls.
There are no women among the party’s nine general secretaries, though there are five women vice presidents and four women secretaries in the list of the new national office-bearers.
Former chief ministers Raman Singh, Vasundhara Raje, and Raghubar Das are among those leaders retained as vice presidents in the new list. Arun Singh, Kailash Vijayvargiya, Dushyant Kumar Gautam, Tarun Chugh, Sunil Bansal, and Vinod Tawde also continue as general secretaries.
