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BJP revamps premier parliamentary board after 8 years
While Union minister Nitin Gadkari and Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan were dropped, Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal and former Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa are among the six new members.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday inducted six new members into its parliamentary board, including Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal and former Karnataka chief minister (CM) BS Yediyurappa, and dropped Union minister Nitin Gadkari and Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, marking the first major rejig in the party’s apex decision-making body in eight years. Changes have also been made to the party’s central election committee.
The move also comes months before the Gujarat assembly elections which will kick off a series of electoral contests culminating with the national elections in the first half of 2024.
The revamped 11-member parliamentary board, which was last constituted by then party chief Amit Shah in 2014, comprises Prime Minister Narendra Modi; home minister Amit Shah; defence minister Rajnath Singh; party chief JP Nadda; other backward classes (OBC) cell chief K Laxman; national commission for minorities chairman Iqbal Singh Lalpura; former BJP national secretary Sudha Yadav; former Union minister Satyanarayan Jatiya; and national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh.
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The national general secretary (organisation) is a member of both the board and the central election committee and Santosh was inducted in both after he replaced Ramlal in that post in 2019.
The changes announced by Nadda, analysts said, are in sync with the party’s focus on election-bound states and southern India, and its continued outreach towards the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and OBCs, and women.
Nadda also reconstituted the party’s central election committee (CEC), which decides on ticket distribution for elections, dropping former Bihar minister Shahnawaz Hussain and former Union minister Jual Oram, in addition to Gadkari and Chouhan. The new entrants, apart from those in the parliamentary board (all its members are members of the election committee) are Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Rajasthan leader OP Mathur, and Union minister Bhupender Yadav.
The parliamentary board, which has the power to supervise and regulate activities of the legislative and parliamentary units of the BJP and guide the formation of ministries had five vacancies that arose after the demise of senior leaders Ananth Kumar in 2018, and Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj in 2019; and after M Venkaiah Naidu and Thaawarchand Gehlot were elevated as vice-president in 2017 and governor in 2021, respectively.
“The composition of the new board is proof of the party’s commitment to inclusivity. Party president JP Nadda has ensured that there is representation from all regions and sections while finalising the names,” said a BJP functionary, requesting anonymity.
According to the party’s constitution, the parliamentary board set up by the national executive can have 10 members other than the party president. While the party president is the chairman of the board, one of the members is the leader of the party in Parliament.
The exit of Gadkari and Chouhan from the board and CEC set off speculation about ties between the central leadership and the two leaders. A four-time CM, Chouhan was the last to be inducted to the board in 2014.
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There is a perception that Gadkari’s statements about governance issues showed the government in a poor light. While the central leadership has maintained a stoic silence on the issue, there have also been murmurs of a change in leadership in Madhya Pradesh ahead of the state elections next year. For months now, there has also been speculation that Yogi Adityanath, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister will be inducted into the board, and many analysts were surprised at his omission.
“Gadkari is not active in Maharashtra politics anymore so the party must have thought it fit to replace him with Fadnavis in the CEC. He’s also seen to be aloof from the party politics (nationally). The two exclusions also indicate that Modi and Shah want to build a team of their own ahead of the 2024 elections and will pick those who they can rely on and do not question their supremacy,” said Maharashtra based political analyst Abhay Deshpande.
Among the new inductees to the board, Sonowal , who was replaced as Assam chief minister by Himanta Biswa Sarma and later inducted into the cabinet, represents the Northeast and tribal communities; and Lalpura, a police officer from Punjab is the party’s minority face in the all-important board and is first Sikh member. After last year’s farm protests forced the government to take back three contentious laws and the BJP’s poor showing in the Punjab assembly polls, the party has been on an overdrive to woo the Sikh community.
Karnataka strongman Yediyurappa, who was replaced as CM last year, was included to ensure the support of his influential Lingayat community in the 2023 assembly polls. Under his replacement BS Bommai, who is also considered his protege, the party has been hurtling from one controversy to another in Karnataka, though senior party leaders have ruled out any more changes in the state’s leadership. Senior party leaders said while Bommai will remain the CM, 79-year old Yediyurappa is likely to play a key role in the election. He is also the oldest member of the board.
“I will faithfully discharge responsibilities entrusted to me by the party. My aim is to bring the party back to power in Karnataka and south India also,” Yediyurappa said.
OBC leader K Laxman’s inclusion is likely with an eye on the polls in Telangana where the party is pushing to emerge as an alternative to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi. The BJP has mounted an aggressive election campaign targeting CM Chandrasekhar Rao on governance issues and hopes to win its first southern state outside Karnataka in elections scheduled next year.
Yadav, who lost her husband in the Kargil war, was picked with an eye on the party’s large women support base and is expected shore up support in Haryana, which goes to the polls in two years. The 76-year-old Jatiya, who retired from the Rajya Sabha in 2020, will be the Dalit face on the board. “In the previous team (before he was made governor) Thaawarchand Gehlot was the Dalit face. Now there is a representative from SC, ST, OBC, women and minority communities,” said the BJP functionary quoted above, requesting anonymity.
Fadnavis’ induction in the CEC is seen by analysts as recognition of his abilities, a reward for toppling the MVA government in Maharashtra, and agreeing to be the deputy chief minister in the new government despite having been CM in the past. Yadav has always been seen as a leader with strong organisational capabilities, and analysts see his induction as part of the party’s efforts to strengthen its war machine ahead of the election season.
According to the party’s constitution, the CEC can have eight members in addition to the parliamentary board members. The changes have taken its strength to 15. Senior party leaders did not comment on the four vacancies in the CEC.
