Nitin Gadkari, Shivraj Singh Chouhan out, Yediyurappa in as BJP rejigs parliamentary body

NEW DELHI: In a major reshuffle, the BJP on Wednesday inducted former chief ministers BS Yediyurappa and Sarbananda Sonowal into its parliamentary board — the party's apex organisation body.
Union minister Nitin Gadkari and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan were dropped from the top decision-making body.
Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal, K Laxman, Iqbal Singh Lalpura, Sudha Yadav and Satyanarayan Jatiya are the other new members of the BJP's apex organisational body — an attempt by the party to make the parliamentary board more socially and regionally representative.
Lalpura will be the first Sikh to have a seat in the BJP parliamentary board as a person from a minority community.
The parliamentary board is the top governing body of BJP which is responsible for day-to-day decisions taken on behalf of the national executive of the party.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief JP Nadda and Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah as well as BL Santhosh (Secretary). are among the members of the board.
The party also rejigged its central election committee and included former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Union minister Bhupender Yadav, Om Mathur and its women wing chief Vanathi Srinivasan.
Former Union minister Shahnawaz Hussain and Jual Oram have been dropped from the CEC, whose members also include all parliamentary board members.
The revamp of the top decision-making bodies comes ahead of key state elections lined up in the next few months.
(With inputs from agencies)