Punjab's Tarun Chugh among five new BJP general secretary

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 26

The much-awaited team of BJP president JP Nadda was announced on Saturday, with many prominent names from among the previous office-bearers missing and several new faces included.

New Entrants

Tarun Chugh of Punjab, Dalit leader Dushyant Kumar Gautam, D Purandeswari of AP, CT Ravi of Karnataka and Dilip Saikia of Assam.

Uma, Madhav out

• Gen secys, including Ram Madhav, P Muralidhar Rao and Anil Jain, replaced
• Tejasvi Surya, a fiery advocate of Hindutva, made party’s youth wing president
• Mukul Roy (WB) and Vinod Tawade and Pankaja Munde of M’rashtra also in team
• Uma Bharti dropped as vice-president

Party leaders claimed that efforts had been made to maintain regional balance with adequate representation to all prominent states. Major changes are on the list of eight general secretaries, the crucial organisational position that serves a link between states and the central leadership. It now has five new faces, including Punjab’s Tarun Chugh, who is a national secretary at present.

Vacancies yet to be filled

• Vacancies in BJP Parliamentary Board, its highest decision-making body, not filled
• No announcement on head of party’s women’s wing

His elevation holds significance in the wake of the BJP’s recent fallout with the Akali Dal over farm Bills. It is being seen as an effort by the saffron party towards projecting leadership in the state. Punjab has got another representation with the appointment of former IPS officer Iqbal Singh Lalpura as national spokesperson. Dr Narinder Singh, a Sikh leader of J&K, has also been appointed as the national secretary.

Though Haryana does not have any direct representation, newly-appointed general secretary Dushyant Kumar Gautam (Rajya Sabha MP) has state connection.

Senior leaders Bhupender Yadav (Rajasthan), Arun Singh (Uttar Pradesh) and Kailash Vijayvargiya (Madhya Pradesh) have been retained as general secretaries, while Ram Madhav, P Muralidhar Rao, Saroj Pandey and Anil Jain dropped to make way for Chugh, Gautam (Delhi), D Purandeswari (Andhra Pradesh) , CT Ravi (Karnataka) and Dilip Saikia (Assam).

Young and fiery advocate of “Hindutva” Tejasvi Surya has made an entry as president of the party’s youth wing in place of Poonam Mahajan.

Nadda also expanded the list of spokespersons to 23 with Rajya Sabha MP and current media head Anil Baluni elevated to chief spokesperson. Others on the list include former ministers Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Shahnawaz Hussain.

Uttar Pradesh leader Rajesh Agarwal has been appointed treasurer and Mandsaur MP Sudhir Gupta his deputy. Amit Malviya has been retained as the IT cell and social media in charge. Other appointments include K Laxman, head of the OBC Morcha, Jamal Siddiqui, chief of the minority wing, Lal Singh Arya, chief of the SC Morcha, and Fatehpur Sikri MP Rajkumar Chahar, head of the Kisan Morcha. Besides, Radha Mohan Singh, Mukul Roy, Rekha Verma, Annapurna Devi, Bharti Shiyal, DK Aruna, M Chuba Ao, AP Abdullakutty were appointed national vice presidents.

Punjab’s Aviansh Rai Khanna, Uma Bharti, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Prabhat Jha, Om Prakash Mathur and Shyam Jaju were among those dropped.

The party also gave place to West Bengal leader Mukul Roy and Maharashtra’s Vinod Tawade and Pankaja Munde in the team. Changes are also expected in the Parliamentary Board — the BJP’s highest decision-making body — where there are vacancies due to the passing away of senior leaders Ananth Kumar, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley and the election of veteran leader M Venkaiah Naidu to the post of the Vice President of the country.

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