Ram Madhav may replace JP Nadda in BJP parliamentary board

VARANASI: BJP general secretary Ram Madhav may be appointed to the party’s parliamentary board in place of JP Nadda, who has become the health minister, according to top sources in the party.

“The party’s constitution states that the national executive shall constitute a parliamentary board consisting of the party president and 10 other members, one of whom will be the leader of the party in Parliament.

The chairman of the board would be the president and one of the general secretaries of the party will be appointed by the president to act as the secretary of the board,” said a source. “As of now, all members of the board, apart from Amit Shah are ministers,” said the source.

General secretary (organisation) Ram Lal is only an invitee to the group and hence cannot fill in. The other members are PM Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ananth Kumar, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawarchand Gehlot, Roads and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari and MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, apart from Shah and Nadda.

With many like Venkaiah Naidu, Singh and Gadkari being ex-presidents, and others being very senior leaders, Shah is faced with an unenviable task of dropping one member to accommodate a general secretary, as per the party constitution.