BJP's national executive meet in Bengaluru from April 2

BENGALURU: The BJP will be holding its national executive in Bengaluru between April 2 and 4, even as the party's national president Amit Shah constituted the body on Thursday, significantly excluding Union Human Resource Development ( HRD) minister Smriti Irani from it.

Sources in the party said that the ostensible reason given for her exclusion was the fact that there had been “too many claimants“ from the Gujarat quota, the state from where Irani got elected to the Rajya Sabha. “There are always exclusions and inclusions,“ said the source.

The choice of Bengaluru, the capital of a state where the party is an impaired opposition, is also surprising. “The city has been chosen as we give a lot of importance to the state, where we intend to make a comeback,“ said a senior office bearer of the party in Delhi. “The state unit is expected to get a new president in December, and some of the party's strategic line in the state could be clear af ter that,“ said a source.

“The official announcement of the venue and dates will be made after general secretary (organisation) Ram Lalji gets back to Delhi tonight,“ added the source.

The National Executive of the party is long due, after it was postponed several times. The last National Council and Executive meeting was held in July last year to ratify the election of Amit Shah as party president. Multiple state Assembly polls meant that the next executive was put off and the announcement of Delhi polls meant that it couldn't be held in February either. “The agenda would be to endorse the policies of the NDA government at the Centre and preparations for the Assembly polls in Bihar and West Bengal,“ said the source.