Reshuffle in BJP: Mukul Roy appointed new vice president, Ram Madhav no more general secretary

BJP, in a considerable reshuffle, appointed Mukul Roy, Annapurna Devi and Baijyant Jay Panda as national vice presidents of the party. Former Chhattisgarh CM Dr Raman Singh and former Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje Scindia have been retained at these posts.

Nine months since taking charge as the president of the world’s largest party, Jagat Prakash Nadda finally announced his new team on Saturday. The list, which was awaited for a very long time, has some new faces and some old names have been bid adieu to.

Former Union Minister Mukul Roy has been appointed national vice-president. Earlier, speculation was rife that Roy who had quit the Trinamool Congress to join the Bharatiya Janata Party, was miffed with the party and could make his way back to his parent party ahead of the crucial elections in the state in 2021.

Another former TMC face who left Mamata Banerjee’s side to join the BJP ahead of the general elections last year, Anupam Hazra, has been accommodated as national secretary in the recent rejig. These moves are seen as noteworthy ahead of the West Bengal elections that will see a pitched battle between the BJP and the TMC.

Starting with national vice-presidents, former chief minister of Jharkhand Raghubar Das makes his foray into Delhi with the announcement of the new team. Old vice-presidents who no longer find a place in the team include current Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Uma Bharti, Prabhat Jha, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Renu Devi, Om Prakash Mathur, Shyam Jaju and Avinash Rai Khanna.

As Poonam Mahajan makes an exit, two new names from the state of Maharashtra have been brought to Delhi. These include former state ministers Vinod Tawde and Pankaja Munde. The two are seen as belonging to the anti-Devendra Fadnavis camp. In fact, in the wake of the state assembly poll results in Maharashtra in October last year, Pankaja even publicly rebelled against the party for favouring Fadnavis.

A significant announcement in Saturday’s list has been the appointment of Rajesh Agarwal as the party’s Treasurer. The post had been lying vacant for the last six years since the Narendra Modi government came to power in 2014. Agarwal is the former Finance Minister of Uttar Pradesh and is an MLA from Bareilly Cantt constituency. He is considered to be very close to former national party president and Home Minister Amit Shah.

This reshuffle comes almost a month ahead of the crucial Bihar Assembly elections where the BJP has partnered with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the new team on Twitter. In a tweet, he said, "Congratulations and best wishes to the new team. I am confident they will uphold the glorious tradition of our Party of serving the people of India selflessly and with dedication. May they work hard to empower the poor and marginalised."The party's first-time Lok Sabha MP from Bengaluru, Tejasvi Surya replaced Poonam Mahajan as president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morch (BJYM). In addition, Radha Mohan Singh, Rekha Verma, Bharti Ben Shiyal, DK Aruna, Dr M Chuba Ao and Abdullah Kutti have also been named as BJP's new vice presidents.

At the same time, BJP leaders Ram Madhav, Murlidhar Rao, Saroj Pandey and Anil Jain have not been reappointed to the post of general secretary this time around. Instead, the party has chosen D Purandeshwari, Karnataka tourism minister CT Ravi and Tarun Chugh as its new general secretaries. Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament, Dushyant Rai Gautam, who was the national vice-president earlier is now a national secretary.

Bhupendra Yadav, Arun Singh, Kailash Vijayvargiya remain national general secretaries. BL Santosh continues to hold the charge as a national general secretary (organisation)The BJP has also appointed 23 national spokespersons during this reshuffle. Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Sanju Verma, Iqbal Singh Lalpura, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Aparajita Sarangi, Hina Gawit, Guruprakash, M Kikon, Nupur Sharma, Raju Bisht, and KK Sharma are some of those tasked with the job.