Narendra Modi inducted into BJP Parliamentary Board, Rajnath rejigs team

NEW DELHI: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi appears set for a bigger role at the national level in BJP ahead of the next Lok Sabha polls with the party on Sunday re-inducting him into the Central Parliamentary board, its top decision-making body.

62-year-old Modi is the only serving Chief Minister to be included in the Parliamentary Board by BJP President Rajnath Singh, who announced his new 76-member team today to steer the party into the next general elections.

Modi comes back to the party's top body after a gap of six years after having been removed from the Board by Singh during his previous tenure as party president, ending speculation over the Chief Minister's future role at the national level in BJP.

Modi, who has been projected by a section within BJP as the party's Prime Ministerial candidate, has also been included in BJP's Central Election Committee, headed by Singh.

Singh's new team has 12 Vice Presidents, 10 General Secretaries, 15 Secretaries and seven Spokespersons, besides a 12-member Central Parliamentary Board, a 19-member Central Election Committee and a five-member Central Disciplinary Committee.

Among the new faces in Singh's team are former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharti and Modi's confidant Amit Shah who have been made Vice President and General Secretary respectively. Pilibhit MP Varun Gandhi has also been elevated as the party's General Secretary.

Party's senior leader and former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha has not found a place in Singh's team. Among those who have been dropped include Najma Heptulla, Hema Malini and Shanta Kumar as Vice Presidents and Vasundhara Raje as General Secretary.

Smriti Irani, who is a Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat and considered close to Modi, has also been promoted as Vice President.

Former Karnataka Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda has been given the post of Vice President while Rajiv Pratap Rudy has been elevated as General Secretary.

Durg MP Saroj Pandey has been made the new president of BJP Mahila Morcha, while Anurag Thakur continues as Yuva Morcha President in the new team.

While Prakash Javadekar, Shahnawaz Hussain and Nirmala Sitharaman will continue as Spokespersons, the new additions are Vijay Sonkar Shashtri, Sudhanshu Trivedi, Meenakshi Lekhi and Capt Abhimanyu.