Seven months after taking over as the BJP national president, Nitin Nabin on Monday constituted a new team of central party office-bearers, bringing in former Union minister Smriti Irani as a general secretary and senior party leader Ram Madhav as a vice-president.
Nabin named Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal as the BJP treasurer while retaining B L Santhosh as the party national general secretary (organisation).
Smriti Irani returns to the BJP leadership ranks for the first time since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections when she lost her Amethi seat in Uttar Pradesh to the Congress’s Kishori Lal Sharma.
Among the eight general secretaries, only two – Vinod Tawde and Sunil Bansal – have been retained, with others including former Tripura chief minister Biplab Deb, Rajya Sabha MPs Sanjay Bhatia and Satish Poonia, Assam party in-charge Harish Dwivedi, and Khargone MP Gajendra Patel inducted as new faces.
Ram Madhav has been appointed as a national vice-president along with ex-Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje Scindia, ex-Uttarakhand CM Tirath Singh Rawat, Lok Sabha MP D Purandeshwari, Baijayant Jay Panda, Rekha Verma, and UP MLC Tariq Mansoor.
Six of the 13 BJP vice-presidents are women. The number of women leaders in the new party team stands at 12, which is seen as part of its outreach to women before key elections slated next year in states like UP, Punjab and Gujarat.
Significantly, the BJP leadership decided to drop Amit Malviya as its IT cell chief, replacing him with a Chhattisgarh party leader Deepak Mhaskey as its new social media convener.
Mhaskey, who currently heads the Chhattisgarh Medical Services Corporation Ltd, has several years of experience in the party’s IT and social media cell, having led its social media campaigns in multiple Assembly elections, including Bihar, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, where the party registered resounding wins.
However, Anil Baluni continues to be the BJP’s national media in-charge with Ashish Agrawal, Pradip Bhandari and Siddharth Yadav appointed as its media co-conveners.
Also, the BJP has named Priti Gandhi, Shivavand Dwivedi, Alok Bhatt and Arun Yadav as its social media co-conveners.
BJP sources said the overhaul in its media cell was a pointer that the party’s thrust is now on effective social media communication in the wake of the Gen Z-driven student protests at Jantar Mantar and the rise of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP).
The party brought in several new faces in its team of 16 national secretaries from different states, who include ex-AAP leader Sandeep Pathak – who joined Raghav Chadha and five other AAP Rajya Sabha MPs in switching to the BJP in April – and two leaders from Kerala – K Surendran, former state party chief, and Anil Antony, son of veteran Congress leader A K Antony.
Vadodara MP Hemang Joshi, 35, and Rituraj Kishore Sinha, 46, are among several young faces in the new team of Nabin, who is the BJP’s youngest-ever chief.
Joshi has been appointed the president of the BJP’s youth wing BJYM, replacing Lok Sabha MP Tejasvi Surya.
Besides Antony, three other minority faces figure among the new BJP office-bearers, including Tariq Mansoor and Manpreet Badal as the vice-presidents. The party’s UP Minority Morcha chief Kunwar Basit Ali has been elevated as its national Minority Morcha president.
Rajya Sabha MP Tarun Chugh has been appointed the BJP’s office in-charge, while Odisha party leader Sambit Patra has been named its Northeast coordinator.
Nabin has inducted several leaders from the poll-bound UP in his team, including Smriti Irani, Rekha Verma, Mansoor, Basit Ali and Amarpal Maurya.
The BJP however seems to have curtailed its national representation from the southern states to about six office-bearers, with Telangana being not represented entirely.
Congratulating the new BJP national office-bearers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said: “This newly appointed team brings together organisational experience, energy and grassroots connect. I am confident they will give their best in strengthening our Party and focusing on public service.”
In his post after undertaking the party reshuffle, Nabin said: “With a blend of experience and energy, this team will give new momentum to the organisation under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I am confident that every member, with the spirit of a dedicated karyakarta, will further strengthen the organisation to take forward the resolve of a ‘Viksit Bharat’ and the commitment to nation-building to new heights.”
Former Union Minister Smriti Irani has been reappointed as general secretary, whereas Amit Malviya lost his position as BJP's social media convenor. (Credits: Facebook/ Amit Malviya/ Image enhanced with AI)
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