The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday 17 August announced a substantial overhaul of its highest body – the Parliamentary Board. These are some of the major changes:\u00a0 Former BJP president Nitin Gadkari<\/a> and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been dropped<\/p>\n The new members inducted into the board include former Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa, former Union Minister Satyanarayan Jatiya, former Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal, Telangana leader and president of BJP’s OBC Morcha K Laxman, former in-charge of BJP OBC Morcha Sudha Yadav and national minorities commission chairman Iqbal Singh Lalpura.<\/p>\n The most significant news from the Parliamentary Board rejig is the removal of Nitin Gadkari.\u00a0 Gadkari is a former president of the BJP and traditionally, former presidents have been ex-officio part of the Parliamentary Board.<\/p>\n It seems that Gadkari has been disciplined for taking independent positions and developing an independent image as he was a favourite of the RSS leadership in Nagpur. A Brahmin from Nagpur, he became party president in 2009 entirely due to the RSS’ backing.<\/p>\n Handling key infrastructure ministries, he is perceived as being one of the better performing ministers and one who functions with some degree of autonomy from the PMO, unlike many others.<\/p>\n He has cultivated the image of being a moderate and dodged making communal statements.<\/p>\n Social representation seems to have been a priority with the new appointees including Sarbananda Sonowal, a tribal, Satyanarayan Jatiya (Dalit) and two OBC leaders (Sudha Yadav and K Laxman). Iqbal Singh Lalpura is the first Sikh to be part of the Parliamentary Board.<\/p>\n It is important to recall that until now no Sikh, Muslim or Christian had been part of the BJP’s Parliamentary Board.<\/p>\n Shivraj Singh Chouhan was included in the Parliamentary Board along with Modi in 2013. In the 2011-12 period, Chouhan was often advertised as a counterbalance to Modi.<\/p>\n Chouhan is presently the only BJP CM to have been in power since before Modi became the PM, his growth independent of Modi and Shah.\u00a0 Chouhan is viewed as a moderate now.\u00a0 Before, he has gone out of his way to seem much more pro-Hindutva in his current tenure in order to gain legitimacy in the ‘new BJP’.<\/p>\n Even MP leader Satyanarayan Jatiya is more a replacement for Thawarchand Gehlot than Chouhan in the Parliamentary Board.<\/p>\n While Yogi Adityanath is considered to be the most popular leader in the BJP after Modi and Shah, he wasn’t included in the Parliamentary Board, though this decision is on expected lines. Putting Yogi ahead of other CMs would have been a precise motion whether deliberate or not, that he is in the line to be the BJP’s next national face.<\/p>\n Now, there are no CMs in the Parliamentary Board. This is a break from 2013. At that time the BJP had included Modi and Chouhan on the board to send the sign that the BJP favours a national ethos and believes that much of its strength lies in the states.<\/p>\n With Chouhan’s removal and Yogi Adityanath’s kept a-bay, the BJP leadership has moved towards even greater centralisation it is said.<\/p>\n YSR:\u00a0 Ysathish Reddy writes, “Modii\u2019s insecurity at work! #NitinGadkari is dropped from BJP\u2019s highest decision-making body”<\/p>\n Modi\u2019s insecurity at work! #NitinGadkari<\/a> is dropped from BJP\u2019s highest decision making body pic.twitter.com\/12Ffma20sw<\/a><\/p>\n — YSR (@ysathishreddy) August 17, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n