New Delhi: The reconstructed parliamentary party executive of the BJP on Wednesday marked a generational shift within the organisation as the names of veterans like Lal Krishnan Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi were missing as they did not contest the recent Lok Sabha polls due to the party’s 75-year age bar. The BJP parliamentary party executive has for the first time appointed three women MPs as whips for women parliamentarians. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the leader of the party in the Lower House, with defence minister Rajnath Singh as his deputy. BJP president and Union home minister Amit Shah, who will make his Lok Sabha debut, is also a part of the team. The Budget Session of Parliament will begin from Monday. The government has also called an all-party meeting on Sunday, June 16, which will be chaired by the Prime Minister.
Also, ahead of the Parliament session, the BJP has called a meeting of its key state leaders on June 13 and 14 to discuss organisational elections. Mr Shah will chair the meeting with state unit chiefs and organisational secretaries to finalise the details, including the schedule, of its organisational polls, that may lead to the election of his successor. Speculation is rife within the party that Mr Shah, also Union home minister, may continue to head the organisation till the Assembly polls in three states due by the end of this year get over.
In the Rajya Sabha, meanwhile, Thaawarch-and Gehlot, a veteran dalit face of the BJP and a Union minister, has been named Leader of the House. His Cabinet colleague Piyush Goyal will be the deputy leader. Mr Gehlot replaces senior BJP leader and former Union minister Arun Jaitley as Rajya Sabha leader. Mr Jaitley
had asked the party leadership to relieve him from key posts due to health reasons. Other than Mr Shah, two other party leaders will make their Lok Sabha debut — Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Smriti Irani. Both leaders have been inducted as special invitees in the BJP parliamentary party’s executive committee.
Besides three women whips, 15 other whips for the Lok Sabha have also been named for parliamentarians from different states. In the Lok Sabha, the BJP’s strength has increased to 303. Other special invitees from the Lok Sabha to the BJP parliamentary party executive are Nitin Gadkari, Arjun Munda, Narendra Singh Tomar and Jual Oram. The BJP has also appointed six whips for the Upper House, where it is the single largest party, with 70 members. The special invitees from the Rajya Sabha are J.P. Nadda, Om Prakash Mathur, Nirmala Sitharaman, Dharmedndra Pradhan and Prakash Javadekar.
BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya has been reappointed as in-charge of the party’s parliamentary office and Balasubrahmanyam Kumarsu as secretary. The first meeting of the executive will be held on Sunday, June 16.
