Gandhi name works in BJP too, says Vinay Katiyar

Pilibhit MP Varun Gandhi's elevation in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Parliamentary Board as General Secretary has drawn fire within the party. Party leader Vinay Katiyar said that Varun has been elevated because of his Gandhi surname. Katiyar said, "The Gandhi name commands respect in the Congress as well as the BJP. Of course, they will reap benefits."

Also Read: BJP announces core team; Modi returns to Board

Former Karnataka chief minister and BJP leader Sadananda Gowda, however, sounded optimistic about the new team. He also hinted at Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi taking over as the Prime Minister if the BJP comes to power in the next Lok Sabha elections. "This time NDA will form the government and Narendra Modi will lead it," he said. He also said that his party would win the upcoming Karnataka polls. "Modi will campaign in Karnataka and the BJP will win with full majority," Gowda added.

The BJP on Sunday announced its new Parliamentary Board and as speculated, Modi was reinducted into the panel after a gap of six years. Among the other new members, who were appointed in the board, were Modi's close aide and former Gujarat home minister Amit Shah and Uma Bharti. Uma Bharti, who is also among the newly-appointed Vice Presidents of the party, thanked Rajnath Singh, LK Advani and Nitin Gadkari.

While Smriti Irani was made BJP Vice-President, senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha as well as Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan were left out. Addressing a press conference in the national capital after the new BJP Parliamentary Board was announced, party spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said "the new team is perfect and balanced". "This team will unfurl the flag of victory for BJP in the next Lok Sabha elections," he added.

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

Rajnath Singh's new team has now 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.

Following is the list of BJP's new Parliamentary Board:

BJP General Secretaries: 

Ananth Kumar

Thawarchand Gehlot

JP Naddha

Dharmendra Pradhan

Tapir Gaon

Amit Shah

Varun Gandhi

Rajeev Pratap Rudy

Murlidhar Rao

Ramlal (GS Org)

BJP Central Parliamentary Board:

Rajnath Singh (President)

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Lal Krishna Advani

Dr Murli Manohar Joshi

M Venkeya Naidu

Nitin Gadkari

Sushma Swaraj

Arun Jaitely

Narendra Modi

Ananth Kumar

Thawarchand Gehlot

Ramlal (GS Org)

Vice Presidents:

Sadananda Gauda

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

Dr CP Thakur

Jual Urao

SS Ahluwalia

Balbir Punj

Satpal Malik

Prabhat Jha

Uma Bharti

Bijyo Chakravarti

Lakxmikanta Chawla

Kiran Maheshwari

Smriti Irani

Secretaries:

Shyam Jaju

Bhupendra Yadav

Krishna Das

Dr Anil Jain

Vinod Pandey

Trivendra Rawat

Rameshwar Chaurasiya

Aarti Mehra

Renu Kushwaha

Sudha Yadav

Sudha Malaiya

Poonam Mahajan

Luies Marandi

Dr Tamil Isai

Sushree Vani Tripathi

Central Election Committee:

Rajnath Singh (President)

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Lal Krishna Advani

Dr Murli Manohar Joshi

M Venkeya Naidu

Nitin Gadkari

Sushma Swaraj

Arun Jaitely

Narendra Modi

Ananth Kumar

Thawarchand Gehlot

Ramlal (GS Org)

Gopinath Mundey

Jual Oran

Sayyeb Shahnawaj Hussain

Vinay Katiyar

JP Nadda

Dr Harshwardhan

Saroj Pandey (Ex-Officio)

Central Disciplinary Committee:

Radha Mohan Singh (President)

Jagdeesh Mukhi (Secretary)

L Ganeshan (Member)

Hari Babu (Member)

Shyam Nandan Singh (Member)

Joint General Secretaries (Org):

V Satish

Soudan Singh

Treasurer:

Piyush Goyel

Headquarter Incharge:

OP Kohli

Spokespersons:

Prakash Jawdekar

Shaha Nawaj Hussain

Nirmla Sitaraman

Vijay Sonkar Shashtri

Dr Sudhanshu Trivedi

Meenakshi Lekhi

Capt Abhimanyu

Presidents of Morchas:

Mahila Morcha - Saroj Pandey

Yuva Morcha - Anurag Thakur

SC Morcha - Dr Sanjay Paswan

ST Morcha - Faggan Singh Kulaste

Minority Morcha - Abdul Rashid

Kisan Morcha - Om Prakash Dhankar