The BJP Parliamentary board, which is the apex decision-making body of BJP, cut its ties with former party president and now Road and Highways Minister, Nitin Gadkari and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The duo also lost their membership in the Central Election Committee (CEC) which determines a candidate’s selection.
The BJP Parliamentary Board
Gadkari was accompanied with Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh and Home Minister, Amit Shah as personas who formerly held the position of party leader. Nevertheless, the latter two continue to be members of the board.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP Leader JP Nadda are prominent members of the board.
The board was a subject to a number of vacancies due to death of Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley as well as the conclusion of the term of M. Venkaiah Naidu as vice president. In contrast to the expectation that the BJP will in fact hire more members for the board, the party took everyone by surprise by further expanding the vacancies.
The removal of Gadkari from the board can be an indicator of the diminishing role of the minister in the party. Furthermore, he represented a faction of the BJP that existed before Modi became a prominent member. Therefore, it can also be an attempt by the BJP to nourish its ties with members who were exclusively brought into the party by Modi and enhance party control.
Additionally, the BJP has been in a steadfast attempt to improve social and regional representation within the party. This could be witnessed during the UP elections as well as the selection of the new board members.
Sarbananda Sonowal (an Assamese tribal), Satyanarayan Jatiya (Dalit), and two OBC leaders (Sudha Yadav and K Laxman) have all been welcomed on-board. Simultaneously, Iqbal Singh Lalpura became the first Sikh to be part of the Parliamentary Board. So far, no Sikh, Muslim, or Christian had been part of the BJP’s Parliamentary Board.
Therefore, the removal of Gadkari and Chouhan could have also been put into action to further vacate seats for individuals who would help make the board more diverse.
