New Delhi, March 12: Union ministers Smriti Irani and Najma Heptuallah and film-star-turned MP Hema Malini were dropped Thursday from the BJP national executive as party president Amit Shah reconstituted it by including new entrants Suresh Prabhu and Birender Singh. The two are also ministers at the Centre.
Nine leaders from BJP’s Orissa unit have been inducted in the nationBJP al executive Council. Jual Oram, Dharemendra Pradhan, Biswabhusan Harichandan, Bijay Mohapatra, Suresh Pujari, Dillip Ray, Basanta Panda, KV Singh Deo and Prasanna Mishra are members of the council.
Shah has retained all top leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Atal Behari Vajpayee, LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and senior ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Venkaiah Naidu as members. Ministers VK Singh, Rao Inderjeet Singh and Subramanian Swamy were included as members in the 178-member national executive that is likely to meet in the first week of April in Bangalore. Popular film singer Babul Supriyo, the rising star of BJP in West Bengal, has been made a special invitee while another film-star turned MP Kirron Kher has been retained in the same category.
While rural development minister Birender Singh had quit the Congress and joined BJP before the Haryana assembly elections late last year, Inderjeet Singh, a minister in the Manmohan Singh government, had deserted Congress to join BJP Congress before the Lok Sabha elections. The former army chief had also joined the party before the parliamentary polls.
In constituting the national executive, Shah has named 111 members, including most of the Union ministers and prominent party leaders in the states. All state chief ministers, deputy chief ministers and those who had held these offices were among the 27 made permanent Iinvitees and while 40 special invitees wereinducted.
Some of the other omissions in thenew list are those who have become governors or those like Jaswant Singh who had been expelled from the party. The former defence minister’s son Manvendra Singh has also been excluded from the new national executive. PTI
