Narendra Modi included in BJP parliamentary board

Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat,has been included in the parliamentary board of the Bhartiya Janata Party by the new party president Rajnath Singh. Modi was not part of the parliamentary board during L K Advani's tenure as the president of BJP.

The newly consituted parliamentary board includes Rajnath Singh, Atal Behari Vajpayee, Lal Kishenchand Advani, M Venkaiah Naidu, Dr M M Joshi, Jaswant Singh, Pramod Mahajan, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Satya Narain Jatiya and Narendra Modi. Mahajan would also be the secretary of the parliamentary board.

"The new national executive has 75 members, with 5 vacancies to be filled later by the President. 12 women, 11 scheduled caste and scheduled tribe members and 25 members from other backward classes have been included in the national executive." the press hand out given to the newspersons said.

Rajnath Singh has appointed Vinay Katiyar, former president of the Uttar Pradesh BJP, as one of the six general secretaries. The other general secretaries include Pramod Mahajan, Arun Jaitley, Ananth Kumar, Om Prakash Mathur, Thanwar Chand Gahalot.

The post of the general secretary organiation has been kept vacant.

Saheb Singh Verma, former chief minister of Delhi, has been inducted in as one of the nine vice presidents of the party. He comes in place of Kisan Singh Sangwan from Haryana. Bal Apte, Kalyan Singh, Babu Lal Marandi, Mrs Sumitra Mahajan, La Ganeshan, Kailash Meghwal,Shanta Kumar, who has been rehabilitated after a long time, and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi have been also made vice presidents. M Venkaiah Naidu who was one of the vice presidents in the team of L K Advani declined to be included in the list of new set of office bearers. Mrs Sushma Swaraj had also expressed her inability to work under Rajnath Singh.

Arun Jaitley has been entrusted with the task of party spokesperson and he would be assisted by Ravi Shankar Prasad and Prakash Javadekar. Manvendra Singh has been designated as the additional spokesman of the party.

Mahajan has been made secretary of the central election committee which has a total of 17 members including Party president Rajnath Singh, former Prime Minister A B Vajpayee, former party presidents L K Advani, M M Joshi and  M Venkaiah Naidu. Others named on the central election committee are Pramod Mahajan, Jaswant Singh, Smt Sushma Swaraj,Arun Jaitley, Satya Narain Jatiya, Narendra Modi, Kalyan Singh, Bal Apte, Anant Kumar, Thawar Chand Gehlot, Babulal Marandi and Shahnawaz Hussain.

Ved Prakash Goel would continue to be the party treasurer. Former chief minister of Delhi Madan Lal Khurana has been made member of the national executive. Khurana was expelled from the party for questioning Advani's statement on Mohammad Ali Jinnah and demanded his resignation. But the expulsion order was taken back following the intervention of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He had attended the Mumbai session as an ordinary member.

Shatrughan Sinha, actor turned politician, has been re-inducted into the national executive. He was upset with the party for ignoring him and did not campaign during the Bihar elections. Similarly Yashwant Sinha and Najma Heptullah who also did not campaign in the Bihar elections have also been made members of the national executive.

Surprisingly both Mrs Maneka Gandhi and her son Varun Gandhi have been made members of the national executive. Last time Maneka had been overlooked. Former cricketer and member of Lok Sabha from Amritsar Navjot Sidhu has been included in the list of 21 special invitees.