Headlines
In reshuffled BJP, Vijayvargiya named general secretary
New Delhi, June 17
BJP president Amit Shah on
Wednesday made a major re-shuffle in the party organisation by
appointing three vice presidents, three general secretaries, including
Madhya Pradesh minister Kailash Vijayvargiya, and four secretaries.
Former
Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Om Mathur, who spearheaded the
party's campaign in Maharashtra, was appointed vice president while
Shyam Jaju was elevated to the post of vice president from secretary.
Former BJP Punjab unit president Avinash Rai Khanna was also appointed vice president.
The
most significant appointment was of Vijayvargiya, who helped the party
score a win in Haryana on its own for the first time, as general
secretary.
Arun Singh, a relative of union Home Minister Rajnath
Singh, was elevated to the post of general secretary from secretary.
Anil Jain, who was secretary in charge of the party affairs in Haryana,
was also promoted as general secretary.
Former president of the
BJP's Odisha unit Suresh Pujari, in-charge of Assam Mahendra Singh, East
Delhi MP Maheish Girri and the party's Jammu and Kashmir unit
spokesperson Farooq Khan were appointed as secretaries.
Shah was under tremendous pressure to fill positions after many of the party office-bearers were made ministers in November.
From
among party vice presidents, Bandaru Dattatreya was made minister of
state (independent charge) for labour and employment, and Mukhtar Abbas
Naqvi was made minority affairs minister in the central government.
Raghuvar
Das became chief minister of Jharkhand and Kiran Maheshwari was
inducted into Vasundhara Raje's government in Rajasthan as a cabinet
minister.
Similarly general secretaries J.P. Nadda was made union
health minister, Rajiv Pratap Rudy was made minister of state
(independent charge) for skill and entrepreneurship. Ramshankar Katheria
was given responsibility as minister of state for human resource
development.
Despite the appointments made on Wednesday, three
posts of vice presidents and two posts of general secretaries are lying
vacant.
According to the party constitution, the BJP president
can appoint not more than 13 vice presidents, nine general secretaries
and 15 secretaries.