Naidu makes out-of-CMO Marandi party vice-chief

BJP president M. Venkaiah Naidu here today named former Jharkhand chief minister Babulal Marandi as the party vice-president. He steps into ...

BJP president M. Venkaiah Naidu here today named former Jharkhand chief minister Babulal Marandi as the party vice-president. He steps into the shoes of Kailashpati Mishra who had resigned following his appointment as the Gujarat Governor.

Naidu promoted secretary Shivraj Singh Chauhan, member of the Lok Sabha from Vidisha, as general secretary to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Rajnath Singh who has become the Agriculture Minister. The higher party post was offered as a sop to Chauhan, whose claim for a berth in the ministry was overlooked to accommodate Prehlad Patel, MP from Balaghat. Patel, a Lodh, had the backing of fellow-Lodh leader Uma Bharati.

Manipur BJP president M. Bharot Singh became the first leader from the north-east to become a national secretary. He fills the vacancy caused by the resignation of Jaskaur Meena. Harendra, organising secretary of Bihar BJP, was also named as the secretary.

Naidu constituted a 15-member national campaign committee under the leadership of general secretary Pramod Mahajan for fighting Assembly elections in five states. The committee includes Marandi, all general secretaries — Sanjay Joshi, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Chauhan and Anita Arya — and treasurer Ramdas Agrawal.

The five Union ministers — Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Ananth Kumar, Jual Oram and Ravi Shankar Prasad — who have been allotted election work as well as Balbir Punj and Prakash Jawdekar have been placed on the committee.