BJP chief”s new team: A mix of youth, seniors and women

Three months after he took over reins of the party, the president of the main opposition party in India, BJP president Nitin Gadkari, on Tuesday brought in a mix of youth, experience and women in his team of office bearers inducting heavyweights like Vasundhara Raje and Ravishankar Prasad and hardliners like Varun Gandhi and Vinay Katiyar.

Gadkari, who was considered as an RSS choice when he replaced Rajnath Singh, also gave positions to some leaders said to be close to the Sangh Parivar. Among them are Bhagat Singh Koshiyari (vice president), Murlidhar Rao (secretary) and Tarun Vijay, who was Editor of RSS mouthpiece "Organiser", as spokesperson.

Prominent Muslim face and three-time MP Shahnawaz Hussain, who was widely tipped to become a general secretary, has been appointed as spokesperson while Najma Heptullah has been retained as vice-president.

Raje, former Rajasthan chief minister who was unseated as Leader of the Opposition after the Lok Sabha debacle, and Prasad, now the chief spokesperson, have been appointed new general secretaries. Navjot Singh Sidhu and Smriti Irani have been appointed general secretaries.

Varun Gandhi, who landed himself in controversy for his hate speeches during the Lok Sabha elections, has now been inducted as one of the 15 secretaries while Katiyar, a former General Secretary, has become one of the 11 vice presidents.

L K Advani-loyalist Ananth Kumar, Vijay Goyal and Thavarchand Gehlot, have been retained as general secretaries while former Jharkhand chief minister Arjun Munda, Dharmendra Pradhan, Narendrasingh Tomar and Jagat Prakash Nadda are the new general secretaries.

RSS pointspersons Ram Lal (General Secretary- Organisation), V Satish and Saudan Singh (Joint General Secretaries - Organisation) have been retained.

- Asian Tribune -