Nadda may name new faces to BJP parliamentary board this week

NEW DELHI: BJP president J P Nadda is set to announce his new team this week, including some fresh faces in the parliamentary board, the party’s highest decision-making body, in place of seniors like Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and Ananth Kumar who passed away and Venkaiah Naidu, who became vice-president.
In the last couple of days, Nadda has appointed three state presidents — Lok Sabha MP C R Patil in Gujarat, O P Dhankar in Haryana and Lok Sabha MP Jamyang Namgyal in Ladakh. Next up is revamp of the national team, which has been due since Nadda took over as party president.
The revamp will be crucial, giving a hint about possible inclusions in the Union ministry, whose expansion is on the cards. In an informal interaction with the media recently, Nadda had said the new team had been finalised and would be announced later this month. He had hinted at filling the parliamentary board vacancies as well.
PM Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh, highways minister Nitin Gadkari, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, social welfare minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot, party general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh and Nadda are the current board members.
The new entrants are likely to be largely from the organisation, who have been handling day-to-day affairs in the party and also supervising state organisations.
Some prominent faces from states could also make it to the board. Besides, it will pave the way for expansion of the Union ministry, which is being discussed, particularly with the expectation that Jyotiraditya Scindia, who left Congress to join BJP, may be made a central minister with an important portfolio.