After being made party general secretary, Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ananth Kumar was on Monday nominated to the party's central election committee by new president Lal Kishenchand Advani.
Advani retained his predecessor M Venkaiah Naidu in the panel and in the parliamentary board.
In the second round of reshuffle announced in New Delhi, the party also gave Sushma Swaraj, its deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha and parliamentary party spokesperson, the additional responsibility of spokesperson, replacing vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
Naqvi will continue to be the headquarters-in-charge.
Manvendra Singh, MP and son of senior leader Jaswant Singh, who was the additional spokesperson, was promoted as a spokesperson alongside other incumbents Arun Jaitley and Yashwant Sinha.
The induction of Kumar, a former Union minister and Karnataka state president of the BJP, both as general secretary and in the election committee, is being seen as part of the party's attempts to fill in the vacuum from southern India caused by Naidu's exit as president.
Kumar replaces MP Pyarelal Khandelwal in the election panel.
