Changes in National Executive surprise BJP leaders

NEW DELHI: Even a day after Amit Shah announced BJP’s new National Executive ( NE), party leaders were still unsure about the urgency for or rationale behind reconstituting the body.

It is still unclear why the BJP president dropped prominent woman leaders including Smriti Irani, Hema Malini and Najma Heptulla from the Executive, making it appear patriarchal. This is when the BJP claimed to stand for woman empowerment and reserving 33% of seats in the party’s top bodies for women – a trend started in 2009 by then president Nitin Gadkari.

However, one thing was clear to the senior leaders, that it reflected the changing equations within the party. “Though the NE does not have any real powers, it is used by the party to adjust useful members, who could not make it to the national office bearers list,” a senior BJP leader said on Friday. “And by the same logic, those who are dropped have lost their value for the party,” he added.

“The most obvious message emanating from the team is that HRD Minister Smriti Irani does not enjoy the same clout within the party and the government she earlier did,” another leader claimed.

According to sources, even Irani was taken by surprise by the move and that she tried to contact Shah on Thursday evening but failed. According to them, there were several complaints about Irani’s “brusque” style of functioning and dealing with ministry officials.

“Complaints had not only reached the party president but also the PM. Even RSS was not happy with the way she was handling the crucial ministry,” said a senior leader. “Her removal from the NE was a terse message.”

The age factor may have worked against Heptulla. In April, she will turn 75, the age limit that the party has set for Cabinet ministers and office bearers. “She is likely to be made a governor after that,” the senior leader said.

However, that argument didn’t cut ice with some other party members who said there were people like Hukumdev Narayan Yadav, O Rajagopal and Lalji Tandon in the body who are well past 75. It is just that all of them represented politically crucial states for the BJP.