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Many new names from UP in BJP’s new national executive
Union ministers Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi; Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti and UP ministers Brajesh Pathak; Swami Prasad Maurya and Dara Singh Chauhan are among those who figure in BJP’s new national executive
Several new names from Uttar Pradesh figure in Bharatiya Janata Party’s 80-member new national executive though the bigger surprise was the missing names of party veterans like party’s Sultanpur Lok Sabha MP Maneka Gandhi, her son and Lok Sabha MP from Pilibhit Varun Gandhi as well as former UP minister Vinay Katiyar.
It wasn’t immediately clear why Katiyar was dropped from BJP’s top body. However, in Varun’s case it is being linked to the series of tweets he made on the Lakhimpur violence case.
His latest tweet with a video of the incident that sparked violence in Lakhimpur Kheri, read: “The video is crystal clear. Protestors cannot be silenced through murder. There has to be accountability for the innocent blood of farmers that has been spilled and justice must be delivered before a message of arrogance and cruelty enters the minds of every farmer.”
“I am not aware of the facts of any individual case but it’s a generally acceptable rule that one shouldn’t be publicly criticising a party or organisation that one serves,” a UP BJP leader said.
The Congress has been at the forefront of the struggle for justice in the Kheri incident with party leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra visiting Lakhimpur along with chief ministers of two party-ruled states where they announced ₹50 lakh each from Congress-ruled states of Punjab and Chhattisgarh as compensation to victim farmers’ families.
Maneka Gandhi’s name being dropped from the BJP body too has evoked surprise for she too hadn’t said or done anything publicly to attract party leadership’s ire. The first meeting of the BJP’s new executive was scheduled to be held on November 7, party leaders indicated.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expectedly on top of the list with Uttar Pradesh mentioned ahead of his name due to his being the Lok Sabha MP from Varanasi. Similarly, former BJP chief Murli Manohar Joshi too figures in the list from UP with defence minister and Lucknow MP Rajnath Singh right after him.
Others from UP who figure in the list are Union minister and Chandauli MP Mahendra Nath Pandey; party’s Lok Sabha MP from Amethi and Union minister Smriti Irani; Union minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti; state’s law minister Brajesh Pathak; state’s labour minister Swami Prasad Maurya; state’s forest minister Dara Singh Chauhan; Muzaffarnagar MP and Union minister Sanjeev Balyan; Bareilly Lok Sabha MP Santosh Gangwar; minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi (who hails from Rampur), and Dr Anil Jain.
Two leaders from UP in the national BJP body as vice presidents include Rekha Verma from Sitapur, MP and former Uttarakhand governor Baby Rani Maurya, who hails from Agra. Another UP leader who figures in the list is Arun Singh, the national general secretary of BJP, while party MPs Vinod Sonkar and Harish Dwivedi are in there as national secretaries.
Rajesh Agarwal from Bareilly in UP is the national treasurer while Lok Sabha MPs Hema Malini (Mathura), general (retd) VK Singh, Union minister of state BL Verma; former UP BJP chief Laxmikant Bajpai; UP’s backward welfare minister Anil Rajbhar and Anurag Sharma, MP, figure in the list as national invitees. Also from UP is Amit Malviya, the national in-charge of IT and social media.
Rajya Sabha MPs Sudhanshu Trivedi, Syed Zafar Islam, Gaurav Bhatia and Prem Shukla are in there as national spokespersons. Lok Sabha MP Rajkumar Chahar, BJP’s national farmers’ wing chief, is also from UP. BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda announced the party’s new national executive on Thursday.
